Band of Brothers
by stormbreaker99
Summary: Shoichi and Raiden were just two brothers who loved video games. So when Sword Art Online was announced, they just had to play it. When the trap is sprung, they have no choice but to fight in the death game. Follow two brothers as they find the meaning of friendship, loyalty, honor and love, all the while fighting to end this terrible nightmare. Follows OC's. Closed to OC requests
1. Today's the Day!

**Hey guys, Stormbreaker here! I want to welcome you to my first ever SAO fanfic. This little piece of work has been heavily inspired by the anime and the light novels, and also by SoulElixir who has been so generous to help me out with this. Anyways, please enjoy the first chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or anything related to it. I only own the characters I make. **

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**Today's the Day!**

**November 6, 2022 – 12:30 PM – Shin Household**

"Today's the day!" yelled my brother as he bolted out of the recently parked car. He charged head first into our house and slammed the door behind him. Chuckling, I pulled myself out of the mini-van and looked over at my mom. She was rolling her eyes and mumbling. I caught the words 'insane' and 'mad man.' Still grinning, I went around the car and unlocked the trunk. For a second, I stood looking at my heavy book bag filled with all of my homework. _'Damn it,' _I thought, _'Why'd the teachers give so much homework on today of all days? Don't they know what day this is? Sheesh.'_ I sighed and hefted the weight over my back and trooped through the front door.

I slowly made my way upstairs and reached into my pockets to dig out my key. With a click, I unlocked the door and dumped the offending item off my back. A large yawn forced itself out of my mouth as I stretched. All sorts of muscles and bones cracked when I arched my back. A few seconds later, I crashed on my bed and closed my eyes. Barely ten seconds had passed before my fifteen year old brother, Raiden, crashed through my unlocked door.

"Oy! Wake up! Don't fall asleep on me! We've got things to do!" he yelled. I mumbled something incoherent and felt a pair of hands shake me. A dog-like growl escaped my lips and I opened my eyes glaring at the ridiculously happy younger sibling.

"Whaaaaaat?" I moaned, "What do you _want?_"

"Dude, today's the day! Don't tell me you forgot! Get up!" he groaned, grabbing my arms and pulled me into a sitting position.

"I didn't forget you idiot. I just wanted to rest a bit."

"You can rest later. Come on, the launch will start in," he looked at his watch, "twenty four minutes. Hurry up and change. You've got to get comfortable you know."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I stood up and took off my school tie and dress shirt. I walked over to my drawer and selected the top t-shirt. Next I pulled off my fancy dress shoes and my fancy dress pants and pulled on some comfy sweatpants. Man, I love sweat pants. They're the best.

As soon as I had finished changing, my brother had raced off downstairs yelling something about snacks. I rolled my eyes and followed him down. He was in the kitchen jumping up and down as he rummaged through the fridge. It was a very strange sight. Seriously. Imagine a grown teenager acting like a two year old. Then imagine that same teenager holding a carton of milk and a jar of cookies. _Then_ imagine that same teenager wearing sweatpants, panda slippers, and a Nike shirt. If you got all that down, then it would look very strange indeed. Still, I understood where he was coming from. Today was literally _the_ day. The day of all days. The day where video games make their mark on their world. That's right. Today's the day that Sword Art Online opens up its server to the ten thousand people who were lucky enough to get their hands on a copy. Today, the world of VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) makes its mark on the world.

_Today,_ I have a dream. A dream that one day on the red hills of Geor- oops, wrong speech. Anyways, you get my drift. Everyone who is anyone will remember today as a historical day. Today a videogame lets you enter another world, another dimension, and not mentally, but physically. Today a person can warp himself into a universe where every little thing is replicated. From the five senses to thoughts and emotions of each individual person, Sword Art Online's main processing unit, the NerveGear, allows you to fully immerse yourself into an entirely new world. _Today_, ladies, gentlemen, grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles, cats and dogs and fish and mice and frogs of each and every species, _today_, we view history. On November 22, 2022 at 1:00 PM, the Sword Art Online server goes online. Ten thousand copies were sold. Of those ten thousand copies, two lie within the Shin household.

That's right. I, Shoichi Shin, older brother of Raiden Shin and Kuzon Shin, have gotten my hands on a copy of the infamous Sword Art Online. No, I was not a beta tester. No, I do not know anything about the game, but who cares? Who flippin' cares? I don't! My brother was the beta tester, and not me. Still, that doesn't matter. Do you know why? Because I still got a copy!

Now, enough with the rant. My name is Shoichi Shin and I am seventeen years old. I'm part Japanese (from my mom), part Vietnamese (from my dad), and part American-ese (from the last eleven years I've spent in America). I know three languages, four if you count my French, and I'm still hopelessly single. Oh, so so _so_ hopelessly single. I'm 70.76 kilograms and 177.8 centimeters tall. For those Americans out there, that's 156 pounds and five feet ten inches. I have short spiky hair that's always in my usual buzz cut, and I have black eyes.

My fifteen year old brother, Raiden, on the other hand, has smooth brown hair and deep brown eyes. They are so brown that they border on the color of mud. Don't tell him that though. He doesn't really like it when you compare him to dirt. No one does really. Any who, he's about two inches shorter than me (five centimeters if you're not American) and just as heavy. My friends think we take steroids, but it's really just exercise. I mean seriously, by the time we were ten, we could do forty push-ups, ten straight pull-ups and run a mile without breaking sweat. That's what you get when you're dad's ex-military. He runs you to the ground.

Kuzon, our little thirteen year old baby, got it lucky. By the time he came around, my dad had lowered his maddening regime by half. Still, Kuzon's not a weakling. Heck, if you called him that, he'll probably just smile sweetly and knock your teeth in. Just kidding. He's a nice kid. He won't even hurt a fly. He's got a mix of my dad's black hair and my mom's brown hair. I still don't know what to call it. Beige? Tan? Heck, we call it brown just to be simplistic. Anyways, he's a five feet one inch and last I checked, he was a total chick magnet. The girls couldn't get enough of him. We used to say that he got all of my dad's charms and my mom's looks. That left me with the old man's mathematical brain and Raiden with my mom's social skills. Yes, how lame.

As I sat at the kitchen table munching on my mom's amazing white chocolate chip cookies, (which, by the way, are the best) Raiden had turned on the radio and tuned into the news. Say what you want, but besides videogames, my brother loved to keep up with the news. Right now, all the anchors were going off about SAO and Raiden was avidly listening. Hearing soft footsteps, I turned around and saw Kuzon walk into the room along with my mom. I noticed that he was in his uniform and realized he had just gotten home from school. As soon as he entered the kitchen and the noise reached his ears, he rolled his eyes.

"Listening to the livestream, Raiden?" He asked.

"Yep. I gotta keep up with the latest news."

"You know that you're a beta tester right? You pretty much know all about the game. So why listen to it now?" Kuzon was not a gamer. He didn't understand the point of it. No wonder he was teasing Raiden so relentlessly. They always fought over that subject, sports or videogames. You know Raiden's side. Now you know Kuzon's.

"Well I'm not playing it yet am I?" countered Raiden, "Might as well get some info out of it." He quickly glanced at his watch and gasped. Rushing over to the sink, he washed his cup and rushed back to clean my empty one. "Sho, hurry! We've got, like, two minutes!"

I glanced at the wall and grinned. It was 12:51. I would hardly call that 'two minutes.' Grinning I stood up and stretched. "Fine. Come on, let's get this over with."

Raiden rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Over with? Huh. Someone's not excited."

I laughed and slapped him on the back before heading upstairs. As I walked, my pulse quickened. This was it. It's almost time. In a few minutes, history will be made. I opened my door and grabbed the 'Do not disturb' sign on the shelf. I had created that specifically for today. My mom knew the plan. I would get two hours of game time, and then we would log out, eat and finish the homework. I glanced at my bag again. Inside lay the beasts known as Physics and Calculus. Lucky thing I didn't get any biology homework. If I did, I would have been screwed.

I walked over to the NerveGear on my desk and admired it. This was the device that would transport me to another world, to another dimension. This was the same thing as the Fountain of Youth, the gold at the end of the rainbow. I connected the device and went through all the checks. Calibration? Check. Full battery? Check. Stable internet connection? Check. I looked over at my clock and read 12:58 PM. I grinned and thought, _'It's time.'_

I put on the NerveGear and lay on my bed. As I laid there, I thought of the world. From my brother's description, it was supposed to be a huge floating castle with many different floors. Apparently, there's a boss at the end of each floor that you have to kill to proceed. The beta testers had only gotten to the eighth floor and there was supposed to be dozens more.

Oh I couldn't wait to get inside.

I heard the sound of the radio playing downstairs and a door opened. I guessed that it was my dad. I flicked my eyes back to the clock within the NerveGear and read 12:59 PM.

'_Less than one more minute baby.'_

Suddenly, the clock changed.

1:00 PM

I grinned.

"Link start!"

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**Well? What do you guys think? Not bad huh? Go on. Say it. No? Fine. Be like that.**

**But in all seriousness, thanks for reading this chapter and I hope you review, like, favorite, and all that jazz. I'm also open to new OC's and their names in my story. Drop me a PM or a comment in the review section. Other than that, I hope to get the next chapter up soon.**


	2. Womanly Parts and Divine Intervention

**A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back to my second chapter of my SAO fanfic. In this chapter, I want to make a few announcements. First, being inspired by SoulElixir, and trying to make things a bit easy on myself, I have decided to place the name of the first-person narrator at the beginning of each chapter. When there's no name (which probably won't happen), it's in third-person. Second, I want to thank SoulElixir, 89, and finally 27 for reviewing my first chapter. I'm extremely grateful. Thirdly, I'm still accepting OC requests for anybody who's interested (I've already gotten two already. You know who you are). **

**Finally, I hope you enjoy this next chapter and please oh please oh please review!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or its iconic characters. I also don't own most of the OC's that I post, except for the two males (Shoichi and Raiden). All credit goes to the respective owners.**

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**Womanly Parts and Divine Intervention**

**Shoichi Shin:**

"Link start!"

The screen of the NerveGear instantly turned white and various colored cylinders shot towards me. After the cylinders faded away, small blue gears appeared and the diagnostic test for my regular five senses began.

Touch – Ok

Sight – Ok

Hearing – Ok

Taste – OK

Smell – Ok

The symbols spun and turned green for each test before sweeping to the side. They dispersed after the test was completed and a small blue box popped up. This box allowed me to pick which language I wanted to play in. I chose English because, after all, it _was_ the universal language. Besides, my English was much better than my Japanese.

Afterwards, I was met by the login screen. I put in my username and password and proceeded to the next screen with the words 'Welcome to Sword Art Online!' After that, blue electricity streaked through my vision before fading to white. When everything had cleared up, I found myself in a strange environment.

It looked like a room, or at least some sort of enclosure. I wasn't too sure. Everything was white and there were no discernible details. I turned my head and found that I could indeed move. Just to be sure, I wiggled my fingers and swiveled my ankles. Yep, still there. Glancing around, I waited for something to happen. Suddenly, a robotic voice spoke out, its voice reverberating around the white space, "Welcome to Sword Art Online – the first ever RPG that literally puts you inside of the game. We record your five senses to allow you to control your own character in our virtual environment. Before you get started, you must create your character for use in the game. You will now be presented with the options to create your character."

Ah, so this place was a character creation room. That would make sense. I've never played this game before and I _would_ need a brand new character. My brother Raiden, on the other hand, wouldn't need a new avatar. He could reuse the one from the beta test.

After the robotic voice had talked, several boxes appeared. Each one had different body features such as face, nose, hair, body type, etc. A mirror appeared next to the options and allowed me to see each change that I made.

I started scrolling through the options to see what happened. As I changed my hair, I felt a little tingle. The short buzz cut was instantly warped into long shaggy hair that covered half my face. _'Ew. No,'_ I thought. _'That's just gross.'_ The hair made me look all goth and emo. I did not like it. I pressed the next arrow in the hair-style box and watched my hair change into what could only be seen as a mohawk. That did not suit me either. It was _way_ too pointy for my liking. I kept scrolling through the list and viewing each hair-style until I settled on one that was rather spiky but not too long. It looked sort of like the super-saiyan hair that you see in the _Dragonball Z_ anime, except that it was a bit shorter. I also finished off the decision by leaving my hair in its original black color.

I continued on with the character creation and found that none of the other features really fit me. Honestly, I didn't like the way each change made me look more different. I didn't like how the muscles bulged in one body type and how I stretched out in another body type. Heck, I didn't even like how the new noses looked on me. None of them worked. Each new feature, each new style and each new _change_ disheartened me. None of these things were me. I wasn't huge and muscular. I wasn't tall and handsome. I didn't have nicely tanned skin with a perfectly good-looking face. Nor was I short and round, tall and wide, average and stocky. I was just me. Nothing special, nothing new.

With that thought in my mind, I reverted back to my old appearance and kept the spiky hair. Suddenly, I realized that there was another option, the gender option. Now, I know what you're thinking. Is he really going to do it? Is he going to be a girl? I won't lie and say I wasn't curious. Honestly, every guy has wanted to know what it feels like. We've always wanted to know what being _female_ consisted of. Thus, my curiosity took over and I changed my gender.

The tingling sensation intensified and I felt my body mutating in ways that it should not be mutated. My hair grew longer, my legs got skinnier, and my chest bulged out in front of me. Finally, the area below the belt transformed and disappeared.

I panicked.

'_Holy crap!'_ I thought, _'NOPE! NOT HAPPENING! UH UH! NO WAY! BACK! BACK! BACK!'_

As quickly as I could, I pressed the gender button and reverted back to male. I was _not_ going to stay like that. That was too weird. It was just wrong. How do girls live like that? It felt like I had weights on my chest and the area between my legs was _way_ too empty. Nope. Not happening. Never again. My curiosity is done. It's been scarred for life. No way was is it coming out of its hole ever again.

I breathed a sigh of relief and looked back into the mirror. That same face stared back at me, black eyes and all. Smiling, I looked through the options again and noticed that I'd missed something. The clothing box had been unchanged. I looked through the different articles of clothing and decided on a green short-sleeved shirt, tan pants, and black boots. Feeling satisfied, I pressed the confirm button. A box appeared with the words 'Are you sure you want to create this character?' There were two buttons, one that was blue with a circle within the button, and a red button with an 'x' through it. _'Blue's better than red right?'_ I thought. Going along with that, I pressed the blue button.

After I'd accepted, another box popped up saying 'Please enter your name.' Below was a text box with the same two buttons. I pressed on the box and hesitated. At first, I was going to pick my usual name, Storm. It was my to-go name for everything that I've played, from RPGs to FPSs and even to strategy games. I was always Storm, and Raiden was always Scorpio. For some reason though, I felt that I should use my real name, or at least a version similar to my real name. I wasn't really sure where that feeling had come from, but I took its advice. I typed 'Sho' into the text box and clicked confirm. Again, a double confirm box popped up reminding me that I only had one more chance to change my name. I clicked confirm anyways.

The same colorful cylinders and electric blue lights appeared again and started re-calibrating things to fit my new body. It quickly finished, and I wasn't surprised. Nothing had really changed. My hair had only gotten spikier and I had newer clothes. Heck, I could've totally bypassed the calibration and I bet nothing would have changed.

The last of the blue-green gears vanished and my vision cleared. I noticed that I was in a brand new area. This place actually had color. In front of me was a ring structure made of stone. It curved around and reminded me of the Roman Coliseum. The only difference was the gigantic metallic castle that sat on the edge of the ring.

I swiveled my head around and watched as other people began warping into the area. I guessed that this was the beginning town, sort of like a noob area.

Once again, I made sure that I could move by twiddling my fingers and bending my knees. I even jumped up and down a couple times. _'This is so _cool_!'_ I thought, fan-girling inside, _'I'm in a video game!'_ This game was _definitely_ worth all the hype. Man, if you could just see the environment. It made real life look pathetic. Don't even get me _started_ on the color. Everything was so well defined and clear. It's a wonder the game hasn't crashed yet.

As I stood there, I overheard little snippets of conversation as people were transported in. They all contained the same excitement that I felt. I'm pretty sure one of them was even frothing at the mouth. The game was just _that_ good. No wonder they sold out.

"Greetings!"

I turned to my left and saw a blonde haired woman dressed in a blue dress. She smiled and said, "Welcome to Sword Art Online!"

"Oh, hey!" I said, "My name's Sho. What's your name?"

The woman continued to smile and one of her teeth twinkled in the sunlight. Sheesh, those are some white teeth. I didn't know you could get your teeth that white. Hmm, maybe there was an option for that. Should have looked for it.

The incredibly-white-teeth lady began to talk and said, "You are part of 10,000 players who are logging into the first ever game that places you and _your_ senses inside a virtual environment! You have now spawned on floor one – Town of Beginnings!"

"Er, what?" I responded with a bit of confusion. She didn't even answer my question. Was she deaf?

The woman didn't seem bothered by my puzzlement and continued, "Would you like a few basic items to start you off on your Sword Art Online adventure?"

'_Oh. So that's what she is,'_ I thought, feeling a little embarrassed. She's just an NPC, a Non-Playable Character. She obviously couldn't respond to my questions. That was stupid of me. Geez, I'm so awkward sometimes.

The NPC continued with her rant, "Please choose one of the following item kits. But, please be aware – Magic is not available in this game. Here are your choices..."

'_No magic? That's a shame."_ I wouldn't have minded being able to use spells and cast charms. It would've been pretty cool, kinda like a Harry Potter sort of thing.

A box appeared in front of the woman with a list of items. I used my fingers to look through the list. Wow there was a lot of choices. The different starter kits had _everything_, and I mean _everything_. There was the Standard Swordsman kit, the Agility kit, the Berserker kit, the Tank kit, the Chef's kit, the Smith's kit, and so on and so forth. There were so many kits, I couldn't even keep count. Seriously, the list was endless. I could probably scroll for five straight minutes and not even get half way through. That was how expansive this game was.

After about a whole minute of scrolling, I stopped on a kit with a particular name, the Monk kit. I stared at that choice and my finger moved over to the confirm button. I stopped seconds before I confirmed and hesitated. There was that feeling again. It was pestering me to take this kit, but why? Why _this_ starter pack of all things? Why'd I stop on this one? Confused, I lowered my arm and stared at the item. Then I noticed something. At the bottom, just a bit higher above the confirmation button, there was a button with the word 'description' written on it. Not really sure what to expect, I clicked on it. Another window appeared and the description read:

"The one who picks this has the will to fight, but has no intention to harm. Use this kit to protect the weak and defend the helpless."

"The heck?" I muttered, "What's that supposed to mean?" I studied the little passage for a few seconds before giving up. There was no way I was going to figure out this little riddle. Besides, I've still got a choice to make. Do I take this kit, or not?

'_Yes,'_ whispered the strange feeling.

I shrugged. _'Ah, whatever. Might as well see what all the mystery's about.'_

I pressed the confirm button twice and another box popped up. It said "trade" with the words "Maria (NPC)" below it. A green arrow pointed to a whole bunch of items that I assumed belong in the starter kit. The items were as follows:

Iron Bo Staff

Silk robe

Silk Leggings

Health Potion x 4

Teleport Crystal x 1

These items were entered into the trade box and the words "Maria has accepted" appeared. I looked at the items again and frowned. Bo staff? The heck? I looked back at the name of the kit and realization struck me. Monk kit. Bo staff. It made total sense. What was the one weapon that you always saw monks fight with? The bo staff of course! No wonder this was in the kit. It's your typical monk weapon.

That explained the strange feeling but not the mysterious description.

To me, the bo staff was a very familiar weapon. I've trained with it from the age of ten, swinging it around for hours on end. Remember when I said my dad was ex-military and he used to train us to the ground? Yeah, physical training was not the only thing he did with us. He taught us all sorts of martial arts including karate, muay thai, jujitsu, judo, and shaolin kung fu. Yes, I know. How typical. The Asian knows kung fu. What an old cliché. Seriously though, my dad was crazy about these things. He insisted that my brothers and I know how to protect ourselves. What he didn't teach us was taekwondo. He let the local dojang do that.

This madness started at age six and began in America (I'd been there since the age of five). For four years my dad taught me the basics of each martial art. Then at age ten, we went to weapons, mainly the staff. We would have practiced with knives too, but my mom would have had an aneurism. Then from ten to sixteen, it was just a constant grind. Day after day, hour after hour, we would go through the forms and techniques. By that time, Raiden and Kuzon had entered the picture and they were also undergoing the same harsh punishment. Only then did my mom soften up a bit. She saw how the two would practice and work. She liked their "work ethic" and even allowed Raiden and Kuzon to train with our uncle. He taught them how to use swords. I stuck with the staff.

Then came the tournaments. Man, the tournaments were the worst. Lots of people. Lots of noise. One on one fighting. No pads, no protection. Just you and your wits. One wrong move, and you went under. Yep, those were the days. Honestly though, I sort of liked it. We spent so much time together, training and traveling. Even my mom had a fun time, and _that_ was a rare occurrence (She didn't really like to see us fighting; we of course had a blast).

As I stood there remembering the past, I heard a little cough. I looked up and blinked several times. The shiny-teeth-lady was staring back at me with an expectant smile. "Right," I mumbled, "Back to reality. Gotta press accept."

After I accepted, Maria began to talk, "Your items should now be in your inventory. Equip or use them at your own will. I hope your time here in Sword Art Online is a pleasant one!" With that, she waved good-bye and walked off to greet another player.

I swiped my right hand and the menu popped up. I looked through the buttons and found the one labeled 'Inventory.' I made sure that my items were there and closed the menu. I didn't need them yet. Besides, I've still got a brother to find. I decided to go find him then maybe look around the town for a bit. Then, we could go try out the combat. Not really knowing which way to go, I wandered west (I'm pretty sure it was west. I mean, left is always west right?).

As I passed the new players who had just appeared, I couldn't help but smile. This place was _so_ cool. I couldn't wait to start my adventure.

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**November 6, 2022 – Town of Beginnings**

Alright. Where the hell is that idiot? Where the heck did he run off to? I've been walking for six whole minutes and that fool of a brother _still_ hasn't shown up. Why, when I get my hands on him…

I sighed. This was not getting me anywhere. I kept wandering in what I thought was westward and still have not made any progress. I swear I've passed that fountain like, five times. This was hopeless. Resigning to my inevitable demise, I took a seat on said fountain and looked around. Maybe I'll be able to find a clue to my whereabouts. That beat asking for directions any day.

To my left lay a row of houses with a bunch of NPC shops. To my right, there were a group of players milling about. I didn't know what was in that direction, and I definitely was not getting involved. That left only one more path, straight ahead. I looked down the road that I'd recently come from and searched it for any notable features. There were a couple of stalls, but that was pretty much it. I'd come from that way and it just lead me back to my original spawn point. Since I didn't want to get more lost, I remained seated and waited for divine intervention.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my right shoulder. Acting on reflex, I grabbed the opposing limb with my left and yanked straight down sending my attacker straight towards my right elbow. Instead of hearing a grunt of pain, I heard a loud chuckle. I quickly spun around and looked into the green eyes of a foreign stranger. I noticed that his left hand was a bit red and he was shaking it to get rid of the pain. So that's what happened. He had blocked my return elbow and with a great deal of speed too. Whoever this guy was, he knew how to fight. I shuffled backwards and got into a fighting stance.

"Woah! Hold up bro! It's me, Raiden," said the stranger holding up his hands in defense.

Raiden? Seriously? I studied him and saw quite a few changes. First of all, his hair was blonde, a startling golden color. Second of all, he was taller, by at least five inches. Finally, he had such a handsome face that I thought I was looking at a movie star. That was _definitely_ not Raiden. He did _not_ look that good. Snarling, I challenged the imposter.

"Prove it."

"What? Seriously?"

"Yes, _seriously_. Prove that you're my brother." I narrowed my eyes and tightened my fists.

"Um. Right. Well let's see." The stranger frowned and looked at his shoes. He then looked up with a mischievous grin. "Oh! I know! Remember that one time back in seventh grade when you tried to ask that one chick out on a dat-"

I launched myself at my brother and clamped both hands on his mouth. "You have the right to remain silent. What you say can and _will _be used against." I'd gotten my proof. It was my brother. Only he would bring _that_ issue up again. Slowly I let go and backed away. I saw tears in his eyes as he burst out laughing.

"It's not funny you know," I groaned, shoving my hands in my pockets and turning away.

"Dude. It's… freaking… hilarious…" he said coughing out words between bouts of laughter.

"No it's not," I responded still facing away from him. I let the kid have his fun for several more seconds before turning around. "You done yet bud?"

"One… one more sec." Raiden gulped in large amounts of air and seemed to settle down. Then he looked at me and burst out laughing even louder than before.

"Fine," I grumbled. "Be like that."

"Alright, alright," gasped a voice mixed with mirth. "I'm done. I'm done."

"You better be," I said as I gave him my best death glare. The idiot still kept grinning. Ah, brothers. They're such a nuisance. Why, I oughta punch him.

"OW! What was that for?" yelped Raiden as he rubbed his arm.

"_That_ was for being a fool," I responded, rolling my eyes.

"Fine. Sorry."

"You are forgiven." I then gestured around me and said, "Well, are we going somewhere?"

Raiden's green eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Here, follow me."

With that, my brother lead me back through where I'd come from and into an overly crowded area filled with all sorts of players. I saw people of different shapes and sizes all dressed in varying amounts of armor. I glanced back at my brother and noticed him wearing some basic gear. That raised a question in my mind.

"Hey bro. Where's your gear?"

"Oh, that? I restarted," he said looking back at me with a grin. "I wanted to keep up with my noob brother."

I rolled my eyes. "Haha. Very funny."

"Isn't it?" He stuck a tongue out at me and kept walking. He then stopped and pointed to a couple of stalls on my left. "Those guys over there are NPC weapon merchants. Players could set up a shop of their own, but no one's going to be doing that for a while." He then waved me towards a vendor with a various assortment of weapons laid out on a table. "See these swords? They're rather basic and only cost about a hundred Col or so. They're good if you want to try out different types of weapons. By the way, what starter kit did you pick?"

"The monk kit."

"The what?" said Raiden. He was looking at me quizzically with both eyebrows raised.

"The monk kit," I repeated. "You know, the one with a bo staff."

"Um. No. I don't know. Why'd you pick that one?"

"I don't know," I mumbled. There was no way I was going to tell him that I'd gotten a strange feeling and decided on that specific kit. It would've been too awkward. Hoping to get rid of the tension, I redirected his question back at him. "Why? What'd you pick?"

"Sword and shield," he said with a grin. Ah, yes. The basic warrior set. Typical.

"Oh well," continued Raiden. "At least you know how to use the thing. You wouldn't have to start from scratch."

'_That's true,' _I thought. That'll give me an advantage at least. Raiden then lead me forwards and continued walking through the street lined with shops. As we went, I saw all kinds of players gawking at the different weapons that the merchants were selling. Remembering our earlier conversation I turned to my brother. "What's Col?"

"Col? Oh that's the currency within the game. It's like how they have dollars in America." Well at least that cleared that up. Now I just need to get my hands on a few of these Col and we'll be dandy.

As we continued to walk, a certain voice rose above the rest. I couldn't help but slow to a stop as I listened. "This ain't just any sword you're looking at! A beta tester got to floor 77 using just _this_ sword!" From the sound of things, some new player was trying to sell a weapon. That got my interest. I flicked my head over in the direction of the voice and my brother nodded. We made our way through the crowd and stood with a bunch of guys in front of a younger kid. He looked about fifteen, and he was ecstatically waving around what appeared to be a stone sword.

One of the guys started laughing and said, "Stop trying to fool us, kid. The beta testers never even made it to floor 77!"

Seeing his small error, the energetic little salesman tried to recover. "Errr, err...did I say 77? Nah, I meant, erm...45? Yeah, that's it! Floor 45!"

I rolled my eyes. The beta testers never got that high. Heck, they didn't even break double digits. What was this kid thinking try to make up such an exaggerated story?

Another guy had leaned in and was criticizing the dude's sword and basically making fun of his intelligence. I had enough. Motioning to Raiden, I walked away with him close to my heels. When we got a good distance away, my brother burst out laughing. I too couldn't help a grin break through my face.

"Oh man, did you _see_ that guy?" wheezed Raiden, holding his stomach. "Dude, he tried to sell a stone sword!" At that we both burst out laughing. You gotta admit. That is kind of funny. The game just barely started and the guy was trying to sell a sword that _apparently_ had come from the 77th floor. What a joke.

"Oh man, that's ridiculous," I said after I'd calmed down a bit. "Man, that's great. I wonder if someone will actually fall for that."

"Probably not. Nobody's _that_ stupid." Raiden had stopped laughing and had turned thoughtful. "Say, how about we go train for a bit? Get used to the combat system."

"Sure. I wouldn't mind," I said. I was actually looking forward to it.

"Well in that case, here. Accept the friend request." A little screen had popped up – "Raidz invites you to be his friend. Accept?" I looked up and smirked. "Raidz? Seriously? With a 'z'?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"Nothing. Just thought it was kinda funny. What happened to Scorpio?"

"Didn't feel like it," he said shrugging. "Thought I'd go with my real name, or at least close to it." I narrowed my eyes and studied him. For some reason, I felt that he'd had the same feeling as I did. Maybe, maybe not. Still, it was a bit different from the norm.

"Whatever you say bud," I responded pressing the accept button. I saw my brother look at his friends list and read my name out loud.

"Sho? No Storm?"

"Same as you dude. Didn't want a new name."

"Alright. Now for the party invite." Another window popped up with the words "Raidz invites you to join his party. Accept?" I clicked the blue confirmation button and saw a small movement to the top left of my vision. I flicked my eyes to it and saw two green health bars. One said Sho and another, smaller one said Raidz. _'So those are the HP bars,'_ I thought. Makes sense. It was small and not very conspicuous. It wouldn't get in the way of gameplay.

"Alright then," said Raiden (I refuse to call him Raidz), "Let's get going."

And just like that, we were headed off for our first adventure.


	3. A promise

**A/N: Hey guys, Stormbreaker here with another chapter. There's not much to say except that I'm still open to OC suggestions and that I hope you all review. Other than that, keep reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own SAO nor do I own the other characters that are suggested to me. They go to their respective owners.**

* * *

**A Promise**

**November 6, 2022 Floor 1 – Town of Beginnings, West Field**

**Shoichi Shin:**

Raiden led me out of the marketplace and down a cobblestone path. We took a right down a small bridge and continued walking. As we walked, my mind wandered away. I was already so amazed at the intricate brilliance of this game. Everything was just _so_ real. The town, the market, the people. Everything was _real_. Video game or not, this _was_ real. Every single person, every single NPC, every single _thing_ was real. It's a wonder that reality can even match up with this world.

Deep in thought, I didn't even notice when my brother had stopped, and I ran right into him. He turned around and smirked, "We're here."

I looked up and noticed we were in a large field filled with green grass and the occasional small flower. _'Wow,_' I thought,_ 'That's amazing.'_ A gentle breeze blew through, and I felt it ruffle my shirt. My brother then raised his hand and pointed to a couple of black moving creatures munching on the virtual grass.

"See those things? They're wild boars. We'll be training on them for the time being." He swiped his right hand and his inventory appeared. A second later, an iron sword materialized in his hand followed by a round wooden buckler.

"A buckler, huh? Not gonna use a kite shield?" I asked.

"Nope. Didn't feel like it." There it was again, that _feeling_. I tried to write it off as a coincidence, but I couldn't get rid of the suspicion that clouded my mind. What did it mean? I shook my head and refocused on the task at hand. I swiped my hand and materialized my bo staff. It wasn't anything fancy, just a long iron rod about half a foot taller than me. It had small little knobs surrounding the tip and a ridged grip in the middle. All in all, it was your typical beating stick. I spun it once in my hand and nodded. _'Not bad. Pretty good balance.'_

I then looked at my brother and said, "Alright. Let's get started. Lead the way bud."

"You got it bro." Raiden beckoned me over to the nearest group of boars and said, "Watch and learn." He crouched down and tightened his right hand around his sword. Suddenly, the sword glowed a fierce blue color. With a yell, he lunged forwards and charged right through the nearest boar. It squealed in pain and a large red line crisscrossed with white, smaller lines appeared on its side. Then the beast glowed white and exploded into small little polygons that faded away.

My brother looked back at me and grinned. "So. What do you think? Pretty cool huh?" He walked back to me and I saw a little white screen had popped up where the boar had been. Gesturing to the screen, he said, "See here? That's the basic loot menu. It records your experience," he pointed to a line, "your Col," another line, "and finally your items," a third line. "It's rather convenient to know what you got right away. Besides, you can just wave it off if you don't want to look at it." With that said, he waved his hand and the box disappeared. "When you kill a mob, you always get its loot. It'll always go to your inventory where you can sell or use it." He opened up his menu and pointed to two items. They read "Boar Tusk" and "Boar fur". Raiden then grinned and pointed to another boar nearby. "Now it's your turn. Go give it a shot."

I smiled. "You got it. Let me show you how it's _really _done." Gripping my staff in one hand, I ran forward to the closest boar. It was a shaggy little beast no higher than my thighs. _'I got this,'_ I thought. No way was I going to let my brother show me up. Empowered by that thought, I spun the staff, lifted it up and used both hands to slam the tip straight down on the boar's neck. With a squeal, it shuddered and one of its hooves struck me right in the man parts before dissolving into little polygons. My HP decreased by about 5%, and I staggered backwards clutching my crotch and consequently falling to the the ground. I sat there groaning and barely registered that the loot menu had popped up. Close by, I heard quiet laughter. I turned my head and saw Raiden holding his stomach.

"Oh man, oh man! That was great! Haha! Dude… that was _amazing_!" he cried out, tears in his eyes. I glared at him and willed all my anger through the deadly look on my face. Unfortunately, he wasn't affected. Dang, I've got to work on my death glare. I then realized that I couldn't feel any pain and released my hands.

'_Right. Videogame. No pain. Got it,'_ I thought feeling a bit stupid. I then stood up and opened my inventory. I saw that I'd gotten 14 Col and a piece of boar fur. Not bad for a first run right? I looked over at my brother and saw that he was still laughing. Groaning, I walked over to him and bonked him on the head with my staff. "Hey! You there? Stop laughing already. It wasn't _that_ funny."

"Dude it was hilarious. Man, did you see your face? It was all like, 'Ouch my balls!' You even fell to the ground!" He doubled over laughing as he remembered my little incident with the boar.

"Har-de-har-har. Sooooo funny," I said sarcastically. Raiden still didn't stop laughing, and I sighed, once again whacking him on the head. That made him laugh even louder. Mumbling to myself, I walked away and headed over to the next boar. I held my staff in a two-handed grip and placed it over my shoulder. I concentrated all of my anger and absolute humility into one stroke. A sudden buildup of energy caught my attention. _'The hell? What's happening?'_ The energy kept building up and up clogging my virtual arteries with absolutely brilliant power. My staff was glowing a bright golden color, its aura creating a halo over the unsuspecting boar. Not really sure what to do, I mentally shrugged and swung.

My staff smashed straight down making a red dent on the poor creature. It cried out as its legs buckled underneath my total brutality. A moment later, it shattered in colorful shapes. I looked over at my brother, expecting him to be impressed. He wasn't. He walked over to and said, "I see you figured out the skill system. Not bad. Most don't get it till later on."

"The skill system?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah. It allows you to perform different skills that do increased damage and have varying effects. If you look under your skill tab, you'll find it listed there." Taking his advice, I looked and saw a skill that read "Diagonal Blow." Ah, yes. How creative. I continued reading and found that the skill was activated by bring my staff over my shoulder and striking down diagonally. It didn't look very impressive, but it'll have to do. I _am_ just level one. As I closed the weapon skills menu, I looked through the other options, completely exploring my User Interface (or UI for short). I went through most of them, and memorized their location and function. When I got to the skill option, I saw that I had the "Two-handed Bo Staff" skill with the numbers "0/1000" written below it. When I questioned my brother, he said that the longer you train a skill, the higher it becomes and the more attacks you unlock. Apparently Sword Art Online had an unlimited amount of skills with each one requiring a specific objective to unlock.

Satisfied with my tinkering, I turned back to my brother and said, "Alright, then. Let's go train some more. I wanna get used to the combat before we go further."

He shrugged and agreed. "Sure. Whatever you want."

With that, we continued grinding (or training. It's game lingo. Don't even ask) for the next hour or so. We went from boar to boar, beast to beast, slaying each and every living creature that moved. Soon it became a small competition as we tried to outmatch each other. For every kill that I got, Raiden would match it. For every dead boar that he slayed, I matched it. We went back and forth murdering all sorts of innocent animals. As we continued, we started killing bear cubs and even rabid wolves. Man, if the animal activists saw this, they'll have a heart attack. They'll have to be shipped off to the hospital with all kinds of needles sticking out of them. Heck, they'll probably even have to go to a mental asylum after they'd witness our senseless murder.

That didn't bother me though. I was having a blast.

I'd long since gotten hang of the skill system and was activating my downward smash every time it cooled down. I also noticed that Raiden had gotten considerably better as time went by. He seemed to adapt to each situation, whether it was a one on one with a wolf or a fight with several boars. The kid definitely knew how to fight. I blame the beta. Not wanting to be outmatched, I started changing my tactics, weaving in combos that I'd learned in real life.

After about my 86th kill, I looked over at my brother and said, "So, you give up yet? I got eighty-six kills. What about you?"

He smirked and said, "Eighty-nine baby. Eighty-nine kills!" He then pumped his fist in the air, holding his sword high. "That means I win!"

While he celebrated, I sprinted out to the nearest boar and swung my staff like a baseball bat. _Crack!_ Homerun! The boar tumbled over and vanished. _'Eighty-seven,'_ I thought as I ran to the next one and activated my skill. _'Eighty-eight.'_ Finally, I reached the last boar and consequently smashed its face in.

"Eighty-nine kills!" I yelled turning around with a grin. My brother's smile dissolved into a frown. My grin grew wider.

"What?! Na-ah! Don't lie!" he said trying to recover. I just proudly pointed over to the three loot windows that remained.

"Shit," he swore. He hung his head in utter shame and mumbled, "You got me. You win."

"Yes!" I jumped up and twirled my staff. "Take that Raiden! Haha!"

Suddenly, I heard a high sound. _'Oh no,'_ I thought. I knew that sound. Someone was using a sword skill.

"Ay-ya!" screamed my brother lunging right through a wolf and slicing it in half. After his kill, he stuck his tongue out at me. "Ninety kills! Eat that!"

I narrowed my eyes at him and charged forward swinging my staff at Raiden's head with both hands. He casually blocked it with his shield and returned the attack with a horizontal slash. I switched my grip and parried with one end of my weapon before striking out with the other end. Raiden also blocked that one and stepped forward, reversing his sword-grip so the tip pointed down and aimed for my neck.

Quickly, I stepped back with my left and changed the staff to my right hand. As soon as my left foot had touched the ground, I lunged forward, redirecting my momentum and thrusting my staff out like a spear to ram it straight into my brother. Surprisingly, he had gotten his shield up in time and only suffered a small knockback.

We then backed up and stood there, staring each other down and analyzing the last few seconds. _'He's fast,'_ I thought, furrowing my eyebrows. _'Real fast. That last moved seemed almost practiced. It's like he's done this before.'_ After I realized that, I mentally kicked myself. _'Of course he's done this before. Heck, he got an extra month of experience over you!'_ Even with that revelation, I couldn't help but become irritated.

Now, there's one thing you should know about me, one _major_ thing. When it comes to anything like grades, sports, or video games, I'm very competitive. I don't like to lose, and I definitely don't like to lose to my little brother. Call me arrogant; call me a jerk, it doesn't matter. When I lose, I get this knot in my stomach. It remains there, getting in my way and altogether bothering me. I can't get rid of it until I _know_ for a fact that I've won. It gets very obsessive sometimes. Honestly though, it's kinda stupid. There should be no reason for me to feel that way, but it happens anyways. It gets even worse when a _girl_ beats me. I wouldn't consider myself a sexist, nor do I think I'm better than a girl. However, I just have this intense desire to _win_ and to get things right the first time around.

Yeah, I know. How stupid.

After my humiliating defeat against my brother, my mind was still trying to figure out how to beat him. Ok, fine. It wasn't humiliating, nor was it a defeat. It just felt like it you know? I sighed as that thought struck me and I lowered my staff, cancelling my aggressive stance. Seeing my actions, my brother did the same, sheathing his sword and slinging his shield on to his back. He then softly smiled.

"Hey. It wasn't that bad. You'll get better. Besides, this isn't the real world. It's a video game. Things are bound to be different. I've just got more in-game practice." Raiden then walked over and patted me on the shoulder. "Come on. I'll buy you drink."

"A drink?" That piqued my interest. I'd always wondered what that'll be like in a video game.

"Yah, come on. I know a good place." He beckoned me forwards and I slowly trailed along. As we walked, I looked at my brother and realized how much more mature he had gotten. He was no longer my little baby brother. He'd shown his worth dozens of times over, and that little bit back there was just one of the many signals alerting me on his growth.

I had missed all of them.

I _could_ say that it wasn't my fault; that I didn't know. But the truth is, I did know. I just didn't acknowledge it. There was no need to. Raiden was always the little brother, the younger one. He was the one that got in trouble and annoyed his older brother. He was the mama's boy until Kuzon came around, and even then, he still very much favored by my parents. I know what you're thinking, 'Wow, what a loser. Suck it up, man. Life's not fair. _You're _the older brother. Do something about it.'

And guess what? You're right. You're right about each and every part of it. I won't even deny it.

So now what? What could I do _now_ to fix this mess?

To tell you the truth, I've got no idea. But let me tell you something. Let me make a promise to you.

Things are gonna change, and they're gonna change for the better.

* * *

**November 6, 2022 Floor 1 – Town of Beginnings, Some Random Bar**

Raiden had led me out of the West Field and back into town. We crossed the same stone bridge and walked back to the marketplace. Instead of continuing forward, we took a right down another street and headed towards the nearest tavern. As we got closer, I noticed a big buff dude standing by the door with his arms crossed. Huge bulging muscles caught my attention and I instantly knew who he was.

The guy was a bouncer.

On closer inspection, I realized I was right. His name was Ivan, and he had the NPC icon floating above his head. I was really tempted to make a historical reference, but I held my tongue. Now was not the time for historical quips. I've got a bar to check out.

I followed Raiden and walked through the front door. My danger sense instantly went off, ringing all sorts of bells in my head. Something was not right. I cautiously followed my brother towards the counter all the while scanning the entire room. To my left sat four people, two guys and two girls. They all had a drink and were engaged in an intense conversation involving who-knows-what. On my right sat two groups of people. The nearest group had two guys sipping on some green stuff. It didn't look natural or healthy. The last group consisted of two guys and one girl. One dude was sitting there with his head in his hand and elbow resting on the table. The other dude was energetically talking to the girl who was softly giggling. I looked closer and noticed something. _'Say. Isn't that the guy who tried to sell that sword?'_ I carefully examined him and confirmed my suspicions. It was definitely the stone-sword seller. '_I wonder if he'd actually sold it,'_ I thought, _'Probably not.'_

I double-checked each table and came to a conclusion. These people weren't dangerous and they definitely weren't triggering my danger sense. Then what _was_? Things were getting way to strange for my liking.

I turned back to my brother and saw that he was browsing the drink menu. I looked through the list and saw some strange names. Rum of the Red-Headed Sphinx? Liquid Magic? Reaper's Power Brew? Jeez, these drinks made Pepsi and Coke sound like juice boxes.

My brother decided on the Liquid Magic and ordered two bright red drinks with silver sparkles mixed in. He led me to a table and passed me the glass. "To life," he said, raising his glass towards the ceiling.

"Aye aye," I said. We clinked glasses and leaned back on the wooden chairs and each took a sip. A cold foreign taste attacked my senses and overwhelmed my internal defences. It demolished my inner walls and sped down straight tomy stomach. I scrunched up my face and said, "Wow… man, that was _some_ magic. Damn, I think I just had a heart attack."

My brother chuckled at my remark before draining his entire cup. I stared at him. There was no way he just took that down. The dude's got balls of steel. I quickly blinked and looked at my 'Liquid Magic.' It no longer looked so appetizing.

"So. What do you think? Pretty neat huh?" commented my brother, bringing me back to reality.

"What's neat?" I asked a bit confused.

"This," he said gesturing to the general vicinity. I finally got his drift. He meant the tavern, the town, the world.

"Oh, yeah. This place is sweet. Everything's so cool. Taste," I said pointing to my drink, "combat," I said pointing at the staff sitting diagonally over my shoulders, "even the environment's amazing."

"I know right? Makes real life seem rather lame don't you think?"

"Real life's always lame," I said with a chuckle.

"You got that right."

We both laughed and grinned at that. My brother then looked pointedly at my glass, and I smiled. "Sure. Why not?" I said pushing the glass over to him.

"Thanks bro." He lifted the magic cup and downed it in one draft. Seriously. The kid's got guts. No way could I have drunk all that. My heart would've stopped and I would've died, leaving behind all sorts of unfinished work. At the thought of work, I flinched. "Crap. What time is it?"

"Uh let's see," said Raiden pulling up his menu. He checked the synchronized real time clock and said, "It's about two fifty. We've got ten minutes." He closed his menu and looked at me expectantly.

"Hmm," I hummed. _'Only ten minutes huh? Might as well log out. Time's about up anyways.'_ I said as much to Raiden and he agreed. I swiped my right hand and opened up the menu, looking for the log out button.

It wasn't there.

"Um. Bro? Where's the log out button?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Should be right there…" He responded. I looked and saw that he too did not have a log out button. The spot was just an empty white rectangle with no text.

"That's strange. You think it's a glitch?"

"Shouldn't be," he said. He then glanced over at the three people sitting next to us. They too had the same problem.

"Oh. This ain't good," I mumbled. I tried going through the entire UI and still couldn't find the button. I looked up and threw a questioning glance at my brother. He shrugged before replying, "Maybe the GMs will notice and fix things up. Shouldn't be too difficult. Besides, they just got out of testing. There's bound to be some glitches."

"Yeah… I guess," I agreed, still worried. That strange feeling from before had returned, and this time with a vengeance. It swirled my stomach and pounded my head trying to warn me about something. I didn't know what, but I didn't like it. Things were getting way to fishy. A couple of the guys I'd noticed earlier were in full panic mode, jamming all the buttons to try to log out. Only one dude was calm, and it was that gloomy guy I'd notice earlier. Maybe he was in too much shock to say anything. I doubt it though. Depressed people were rarely bothered by anything.

Suddenly, I heard a loud ringing sound.

_Diiiiiing_

_Dooooong_

_Diiiiiing_

_Dooooong_

The loud noises sent the entire bar into a state of confusion, scattering all thoughts as the sounds echoed through the room. _'The hell's happening,'_ I thought, glancing around. _'What's with the noise?'_ A female screamed then pierced through the din and I heard a yell. I looked towards the noise and saw the girl glowing a bright blue color. The stone-swordsman next to her was saying something before he too was absorbed in blue light. A hand appeared out of nowhere and gripped my shoulder before white lights surrounded my vision, and I felt my entire body get yanked through space.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the coliseum that I'd spawned in at the start of my adventure. The same hand that had gripped my shoulder was still there, and I followed it to see Raiden's worried face.

"What happened?" I asked. "Is this some sort of event?" Looking around, I saw loads of people being transported into the area. There were so many people that I couldn't keep count. I then felt a tug on my shoulder. I looked over at Raiden questioningly, "Yeah? What's wrong?" He wordlessly pointed his finger upwards and I followed it. I spotted a small red hexagonal shape periodically blinking in the sky. The word 'Warning' seemed to be embedded in it.

"Warning?" I asked. "What's that mean?"

"I don't know bro. I don't know."

The bells had finally stopped ringing and confusion clouded the air like a thick winter blanket. The little red box started blinking more rapidly and then multiplied, spreading all around the coliseum like a gigantic red force field. Some had the words 'Warning' while others had the word 'System Announcement.' That didn't look too good. Warnings were never happy news.

A loud voice then rang out filled with terror, "What – what is that thing?!"

I looked skywards and saw a thick sticky substance flowing out of the little red hexagons. It clumped together to form a large red hooded figure with two arms spread wide open. It looked like a ghost of some sorts. The only difference was that it was red. Everyone knows that ghosts are white. Duh.

The fake-ghost figure then spoke with a loud voice, "Players, welcome to my world. Welcome to Sword Art Online."

"I am Kayaba Akihiko," the thing continued, "I am currently the only person who can control this world." I heard my brother gasp. "That's him? That's Kayaba? No way…" It seemed like Raiden was star struck. I couldn't blame him. The guy was famous. He built this world and everything in it. That took some doing. No wonder my brother was so impressed.

"I trust that you have already noticed the logout button is missing from the main menu," he said, continuing the opening ceremony. My mind went back to the bar. _'Yep,'_ I thought, _'I definitely remember it.'_ My brother nudged me and grinned, "See? I told ya the GMs were gonna fix-"

"However, this is not a game malfunction", Kayaba said, cutting him off, "I repeat – This is not a game malfunction, but an original feature of Sword Art Online."

That instantly changed my brother's expression. He whipped his head back in shock. "An original feature? What are you _talking_ about?" A few people gasped and muttered something in worried tones.

Kayaba then continued, "You cannot log out of Sword Art Online on your own. No one on the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful burst of microwave radiation, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

'_The heck?'_ I thought incredulously, _'This guy's crazy! What is this, some kind of sick joke?'_

The responses from the people close by changed dramatically after that. Some guy even yelled out in anger, waving his fist in the air. My brother hadn't said anything, but his face was one of utter shock. I didn't know what to do so I breathed in and out a couple times, calming my nerves.

That was when Kayaba decided to screw things up even more. "Unfortunately, the friends and family members of several players have ignored this warning and attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have permanently retired in both Aincrad and the real world."

'_Wait, what?! The hell did you just say? Permanently retired? Just what the flip are you going on about?'_ I mentally screamed and my pulse rate increased, hammering blood through my body. I heard Raiden gasp as small screens popped up by the red reaper showing us the evidence.

"Oh no," whispered Raiden in fear.

That bastard Kayaba continued and said, "Thus, you can now assume the danger of having your NerveGear removed to be greatly reduced. Please relax and work hard to clear the game. However, do take note of this – You can no longer respawn in this game."

"What?!" I screamed out loud. No way! This is not happening! No freaking way! Of course the madman Kayaba still wasn't finished messing with us and continued his speech.

"Once your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be permanently erased. At the same time, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

"Well, fuck…" I swore.

"You need only fulfil one condition to set yourselves free..." said the crazed SOB. "Clear the game."

"No way," mumbled Raiden. His eyes were wide open and his face was entirely pale.

A map then appeared in front of the GM showing the entire world of Aincrad. "You are currently on the 1st floor, the lowest level of Aincrad. Make your way through each dungeon, defeat the Floor Boss and you will advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on the 100th floor and you will clear the game."

"A hundred floors," said Raiden, fear apparent in his voice. "The beta testers only got to floor eight in one month. How are we going to get past a hundred floors?"

"I don't know bud. I don't know," I said shaking my head. This was not good, not good at all. The GM then continued to talk.

"And, finally, you can find a gift from me in your item storage. Please check for yourselves."

I was shocked at that. No way was the guy gonna give us some free gift. This has got to be some kinda trick. No way in hell was this guy letting us off this easily. I decided to look anyways. When I opened my inventory, I saw an item labelled 'Mirror' sitting there. I materialized it and held it in front of me. _'What does this mean?'_ I thought.

I suddenly heard a yelp and a bright light came from my left. I looked over at my brother and saw that he was glowing, his face lit up in absolute terror. "RAIDEN!" I yelled lunging towards. A second before I could reach him, I too lit up in white light.

After it faded, I looked up and stared straight in the eyes of my little brother. By eyes, I literally meant eyes. I yelped and jumped back.

"The hell? Raiden? Is that you?" The questions were kinda pointless for he stood there with his flat brown hair and his mud-colored eyes. There was no mistaking it. It was definitely my brother.

"Sho? The heck happened to you?" he questioned pointing a finger at me.

"What? What's wrong?" I lifted the mirror and saw that I too had transformed. Instead of the spiky anime-styled hair, I saw my usual buzz cut. There was nothing new besides that, but it was still disconcerting all the same.

"Kayaba," I growled, looking towards the red spirit floating above us. I noticed that everyone around me had also reverted to their true forms. There was confusion about how that was possible, and I too was confused until my reasonable brain figured it out. It was the NerveGear. It acted as a sort of image capturing device, imprinting your face into the system. The body changes could be explained, too. Before you could use the thing, it forced you to pat yourself all over, "calibrating" to your needs. Ha. _'Calibrate. My ass,'_ I thought sarcastically. _'This was the plan the whole time.'_

"Why?" mumbled Raiden, forcing words out in his shock induced stupor. "Why would you do such a thing?" The red bastard, of course, had an answer. It was like he'd practised this from the beginning. Damn him.

"All of you must be wondering why. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I wanted to create my own world that I could observe and admire. That is why I made Sword Art Online. And now, it has all been fulfilled."

"That's it? That's your reason?" I yelled at him. There was no way that counted as a reason. It wasn't even close to reasoning. It bordered on the line of insanity not logic. _'Fuck him,'_ I thought. _'Fuck him to hell.'_

Apparently Kayaba had finally said all he wanted to for he finished off with, "This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. I wish every player the best of luck..." The red ghost began to fizzle and fade, static lining the edges of his virtual image. Finally he faded away and silence filled the entire coliseum.

When he was gone, the madness dawned on me. That sun of a gun had finally done it. He'd created a world where the entire premise was based on survival. That _mother fucker_ had gone off and decided to fuck with the entire world and flip it upside down. No. This was no longer a game. It was insanity. This was fucking insanity and I was not gonna get caught in it.

"Come on," I growled as I grabbed my mute brother's arm, dragging him out of the square. The red force field had vanished and we passed through it without difficulty. A feminine screen then echoed through the coliseum inciting the mob mentally that I knew would occur. It did no good staying around.

My brother still had not said anything as we wandered past the empty market stalls and into a side street. I stopped there and let go of Raiden's arm, turning around to look at him. The kid's face was as white as paper, and it looked like he'd seen a ghost. He still didn't say anything. He just stood there and stared into the ground. This was not good. I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Come one bud. Talk to me. Come on buddy."

At the sound of my voice, he looked up with hollow eyes and said, "Sho. We… we're gonna die aren't we? We're gonna die in here. We're gonna die and not get out. That's it right? We're done for…" He slumped down to the ground and sat there hugging his knees with tears in his eyes.

'_Oh no. No no no. NO!'_ I lunged forward and grabbed Raiden by the collar dragging him into a standing position. "NO, DAMN IT! NO!" I slammed him into the nearby wall and growled in his face. "No. We are _not_ going to _fucking_ die, you hear me? There's no way I'm going out like this. Not without a fight." Those brown eyes of his didn't seem to comprehend. They didn't seem to get it. I moved back a bit, still holding his collar, and slammed him back against the wall. "Raiden. Raiden! Listen to me man! Listen!" I didn't know if it was the pain, or the shock from my voice, but it didn't matter for a light flickered back in my little brother's eyes and he grabbed both of my arms. Anger dotted his face as he wrestled with my grip on his collar. Seeing that he'd finally come back, whether from anger or understanding, I released my hold and stepped back. What Raiden said next shocked me.

"Don't you get it Sho? We're stuck here! STUCK! There's no fucking way to get out! We could die in here! Do you _know_ what that means? Do you have any idea?" His face contorted in fear, and he backed up into the wall holding his head. "It means we're done for. Screwed. Game over. No way out…"

I stood there with my mouth gaping wide open. Was he serious? Did he lose hope already? Things have just started and shit's already hit the fan. I turned around showing my back to Raiden and hiding the snarl on my face. I didn't know what to say. I _had_ nothing to say. He was right about everything. We _were_ stuck and we there _was_ no way to get out. However, that didn't mean all hope was lost. Hell, I thought we had a lot more hope than everyone was letting on. I had to fix this before shit got any worse between me and my brother.

Besides, I had a promise to keep.

With that resolution in my mind, I turned around, walked back to my brother and poked him right in the chest. "Listen here _bud_. Do you remember what dad always told us before _every _sparring tournament, _every _soccer game, and_ every_ football match? Huh? Do you _know_ what he told us? HUH!?" I yelled the last word and saw Raiden flinch. "Go on. Tell me."

He looked down at his shoes, and I could literally see the gears moving in his head. He knew the answer. We both did. Now he was just connecting it to the situation. When he looked up, I saw a rueful grin on his face. He chuckled a bit before saying, "Dad always told us to stay calm and focused right? I wasn't very calm or focused, now was I?"

"No you weren't. Not one flipping bit," I responded with a slight smile. "Now come on. We've got work to do."

"All work and no play? Ha, and I thought you _loved_ videogames." I looked up and saw Raiden smirking. I rolled my eyes. There was the old Raiden that I knew. Guess all he needed was a little smack to set him straight. Little brothers are _so_ strange.

I pulled up my map and looked through it. Raiden noticed my action and did the same. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but having the map out made me feel better. It made me feel in control. I could use some control right now.

"Hey bro? So, uh, what's the game plan?" asked Raiden.

"Game plan? Um, let's see…" I pursed my lips and thought for a few seconds, furrowing my brows. I knew that we needed to level up and get good gear to survive. I also knew that we had to clear the game, all one hundred floors, to escape. So I put two and two together and got four.

"We gotta move ahead. Stay in front of the crowd. We'll go here," I said, pointing to the next town over. I looked up and gestured to Raiden. "You're a beta tester. You know the quickest and safest ways around right?"

"Only up to floor ten. But yes."

I nodded, satisfied. "So that's the plan. We keep ahead and grab all the quests, the resources and rewards. We level up, train and fight our way out of here. That's the least we can do. However," I stared at my brother to make sure he got the message, "we _always, always_ stay alive. You got it? No heroics. No search and rescues. Top priority is survival. Got it?"

"I… guess…" he responded. I didn't like that tone and questioned him on it. "What do you mean, you guess? Isn't survival our number one priority? Didn't you say that you didn't want to die?"

"Well… yeah. Of course I don't want die. It's just… there's about nine thousand eight hundred other players out there. They might need our help."

I frowned. He was right. Again. Still, it didn't matter. I wasn't gonna go play hero to any random stranger. They might not return the favor. I conveyed my thoughts by shaking my head and saying, "They might. They might not. I'm not gonna risk. Our first priority is to survive, _not _to save others. So come on. We've got to move." I closed my map and started walking away. That's when I heard a sigh. I stopped.

"Seriously Sho? That's it? Just you, me and survival right? Nobody else?"

"Can't afford it Raiden. Things are gonna get real dangerous real fast. We don't have _time_ to protect other people, and we definitely don't have time for moral debates. Now, _come on_. Let's move." I continued to walk and heard another pair of footsteps close behind.

"Fine. Be like that," said Raiden, sadness apparent his voice.


	4. Snake-vines and a Little Thief

**Alright people. Here it is. The fourth chapter to this series. I want to give mad props to 89 and 27 for the two new female OCs that will be appearing in the chapter. You guys rock! Also, as always, I hope you liked the chapter and post a review. I'm still open to new OCs. Other than that, I hope you enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Snake-vines and a Little Thief **

**December 23, 2022 Floor 3 – The Forest**

**Shoichi Shin:**

Sword Art Online. It was supposed to be the greatest game of all time, the game of games, the ultimate virtual experience. Ten thousand players, ten thousand hopefuls, one game. That was the premise. Heh, of course it didn't end that way. Things are never that easy. So what happens? The game creator goes and traps us, forcing everyone to survive in a foreign world filled with all sorts of monsters and deadly creatures. Worse yet, death in this game spells death in real life. Once your HP reaches zero, that's it. Game over. End of the line.

Yeah, I know. How kind of him.

It's been a little over a month since our entrapment and already over two thousand people have died. Three hundred of them were beta testers. Fortunately for us, we've managed to clear floor one and about two weeks later, floor two was cleared. Raiden and I were one of those people that fought the first two bosses. Let me tell you something about that. For one thing, no one had any idea what to expect. Sure, we had data from the beta testers, and we _had_ gathered up a sizable raid group, but seriously. We had no idea. We're lucky enough to have only lost a total of five people. Things could have been a lot worse.

This then leads me to the next problem: the discrimination against beta testers. I was at that first boss meeting. It wasn't good. Some guy by the name of Kibaou had up and accused the beta testers of letting the two thousand to die. Hell, he even demanded that they give back their equipment and any gear they'd acquired. How wrong was that? I'm not a beta tester, but I knew that wasn't right. There was no way a person like my brother had allowed others to die _on purpose_. Sure, the beta testers had an advantage over others. Sure, they were more experienced than the average player, but _so_ _what_? That didn't make them immortal. That doesn't make them more powerful. Hell, just look at the stats. _Three hundred_. That's a three and two zeros. _Three hundred_. I dare you to tell me that the beta testers were better than others. If they were, there would be fewer deaths. Besides, those guys didn't just leave others to their own devices. They had created a guide book sharing _any _and _all _knowledge that they had. I bet some even died to get that info.

Then, of course, there just had to be that _one_ guy, that one guy who goes up and lays all the blame on himself. Kirito, the beater, the guy who beat the first boss along with that girl, Asuna. Man, those two were good. We covered them and they just went and owned that boss. Well done I say. Well done. But guess what? Kibaou once again goes and screws things up. The truth comes out and what do you know, Kirito's a beta tester. Instead of denying it, the dude goes and agrees. Better yet, he goes and says that he was _the_ beta tester, the one to reach the highest floor. He called himself a beater, a combination of a beta tester and a cheater.

That was a mistake.

He was now a target, the enemy. Nobody likes beta testers. Everybody hates beaters. That was the rule. Heh, what a bunch of baloney.

There was only one good thing that came out of the fight. We had cleared the first floor. Other than that, the situation was still terrible.

That leads us to the present.

Raiden, my fifteen year old brother, and I were currently in the forest of the third floor, training our skills. We were both level fifteen with the recently received «Martial Arts» skill along with the «Parry» and «Battle Healing» skill. I had also gotten the «Detection» skill. Raiden, instead, had gotten the «Listening» skill. We had also unlocked a couple of new sword skills and added them to our increasing arsenal. I swear though, Raiden was getting better by the day. His attacks were strong, quick, and flowed smoothly from one target to another. He clearly showed this in a fight against a Treant Sapling, a hideous beast that looked like a tree trunk with glowing red eyes and a gaping mouth. It had two claw-like hands and moved with an array of roots. It slowly wandered towards Raiden and swung. He dodged right and with his sword glowing red, he sliced upward cleaving off its arm. He then spun and sliced down to chop off the other one.

"Switch!" he yelled.

"Right!" I responded charging forward. My staff glowed green, and I lunged forward spearing the creature right between the eyes. It moaned in pain and shattered in a million little polygons. I stood up, spun my staff and stuck it into the sheath on my back. I looked back at my brother and grinned. "Not bad huh?"

"Nope. Not bad at all." He smiled and bumped his fist with mine. We then turned around and continued through the misty forest. We followed a single path curving through the tall trees, keeping our eyes out for any more plants. This forest was actually very dangerous if you didn't know how to navigate it. You could easily get lost and wander for days. We had made sure to bring a few teleport crystals, just in case.

As we walked, I kept my senses open, practicing my new «Detection» skill. I sensed my brother standing at my side in his new light metal armor. He had on a bronze chest piece that covered his torso and two bronze shoulder pads. He wore a dark blue long-sleeved shirt under the metal and a pair of white pants. His sword sheath was slung over his back and a strap ran down his shoulder. Finally, he finished off his attire with dark blue boots.

I continued my scan and noticed a few Wandering Treants moping around. They weren't so tough, but I didn't want to stray from the path. We didn't need to get lost today. Satisfied with my search, I returned to the present and continued walking. We met a couple of mob groups as we journeyed and successfully killed them, gaining more loot and experience. Finally, we came into an open clearing. I reached out to look for monsters and found none. Still suspicious, I wandered around occasionally tapping the ground with my staff. _'Nope,'_ I thought. _'No surprises here.'_ Finally, I called to Raiden and signaled for a rest. We both sat down on a set of moss-covered boulders and pulled out our lunch.

I swiped my right hand, pressed a few buttons, and out came a sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil. It was pretty basic actually, just ham and cheese. There was really no flavor and it seriously annoyed me. Both me and my brother had opted out of the »Cooking« skill offered on the second floor. We were more focused on combat and training. We had no time to make food. Still, it wouldn't have hurt to have a good meal once in a while.

I sighed as I continued to look at my miserable sandwich. Resigning to my fate, I took a bite. Just as I thought, flavorless. Well, there goes thirty Col. I took a few more bites and looked over at Raiden. He had the same sandwich and was eating it with relish, loudly chewing on each bite. Man, nothing brought _that_ kid down. The food was not good at all, and he goes and savors each little morsel. One thing for sure, he wasn't gonna starve. He'll eat anything and that was a good thing. So far, SAO didn't really have any good food, but I heard it got better on higher floors. I hope so. I was getting tired of ham and cheese sandwiches. I needed some _real_ food, not this tasteless thing in my mouth.

When I had finally wrestled down the last piece of my sandwich, I stood up and brushed the crumbs off my new outfit. Well, it wasn't actually that new. I was wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt with a matching set of dark green pants held up by a black belt with a dull black buckle. Over my shirt, I had on a brown leather vest that covered up my chest with a single strap going down from my right shoulder to my left hip. Connected to that strap was the sheath to my staff. On my feet was a pair of dark green boots. I wore black fingerless gloves with extra grip on the inside of my palms. All in all, I sported a dark green set of clothing and wielded my new red Defender's Staff +6». I had gotten it from the martial arts quest when I broke a boulder with my old iron rod. Apparently, that was a rare feat for the NPC immediately handed me my new weapon. Soon after, I upgraded the weapon with +3 Durability and +3 Heaviness (or 3D3H for short.) Unfortunately for him, Raiden didn't get a weapon from the same quest and had resorted to buying the «Heated Blade», a weapon that he bartered off of a merchant. He too upgraded his weapon and got it to +3 Sharpness and +3 Durability. So by the time that we reach the third floor boss, we would both be prepared with adequate weapons.

My shirt was completely crumb free by the time that I finished cleaning up. I stretched out for a second and heard all sorts of popping noises. _'That's what you get for fighting monsters all day,'_ I thought as muscles loosened and my aching body moved in ways that it didn't want to. I glanced over at Raiden and saw that he was holding a strange red mixture with silver sparkles. I knew what that was. It was Liquid Magic, the drink that my bro had recently become addicted to. I frowned and padded over to him before grabbing the drink from his hands.

"Hey! What was that for?" he yelped incredulously. "I was drinking that!"

"Not any more you aren't. You've had way too much recently." I took the bottle, uncorked it and spilled it on the ground. "Besides. How can you drink that thing? It's way too strong." The item shimmered and then exploded as its durability ran out.

"Aw come on bro. It's not that bad. Ah, now look what you've done." He gestured to the floating remnants of the drink and sighed when they vanished. "You're such a kill joy you know that?"

"Come on," I said, "we've got to go. How much more seeds do you need?" I pulled up my quest menu and scrolled down the list looking for the one that we were working on.

"Well, I've got thirty-six. How about you?"

I looked in my inventory and saw that I had thirty-two. "Thirty-two. I need eighteen more."

"And that makes fourteen more for me. Alright, let's go." He stood up and stretched, moving his arms in small circles. He then beckoned me forward and made his way out of the clearing. I slowly followed him while enjoying the warmth of the morning sun. Say what you want about this game, but at certain times, you forget that you're trapped and fighting for your life. At times like these, you feel like you're back in the real world, sitting on your porch and enjoy the sun on your face.

"Mooooooraw! Graaaaawr!" A loud roar echoed through the clearing. I froze, reaching back for my staff. Raiden instantly pulled his shield off his back and his right hand gripped his sword hilt. The earth suddenly began to shake as cracks spread from where we stood. They traveled to a central point in the ground and the rumbling increased. A bunch of vines then shot out of that crack, spreading out in all directions. I yanked my staff out and spun it in a circle while moving backwards. The vines were deflected away, but more just came to take their place. I heard a grunt from my left and saw a vine ramming straight into Raiden's gut. His HP decreased by about 2%.

"Get back!" I screamed, fending off various vines. "We've got to move back!"

"Right behind you bro!"

Together we backed up on to the two boulders that we previously had lunched on. For some reason, the vines stopped attacking us as soon as we set our feet on the rocks. They reared back hissing in pain before retreating back to a safe distance. _'The heck? What's going on?'_ I thought. I looked over at Raiden for answers, but he had on a strange look. I had no idea what was happening and I definitely didn't like it. We were surrounded by a horde of snake-like vines just waiting for us to step off our rocks. There were several cut up vines that I assumed resulted from Raiden's attacks. Still, we were completely outnumbered and had nowhere to go. We didn't even know what we were facing.

"Hey Sho?" asked my brother in plain English, breaking through my thoughts. "Just so you know, we're being watched." Wait. Hold up. English? I snapped my head over to him and he nodded. "I don't know who it is, but I think he's right behind us."

"Um. Why are you speaking English?" I asked in the same language. Things were going _way_ too fast for my liking. I had barely gotten past the giant snake-vines. Now my brother was talking in _English_ and saying that we were being _watched_? Sheesh, slow down.

"Well, I didn't want to alarm our observer. Whoever he is, there's got to be reason that he's here."

"Riiiiight… And what about the vines?" I pointed to the watching green sentries swaying slowing in the air. "What are we gonna do about them?"

"Oh, them? They're nothing," shrugged Raiden. "I should've paid more attention. Those vines belong to an Elite Vine Snare."

"An Elite what? What's that?" Great, now he was talking in gibberish. I'm gonna need my head checked.

"An Elite Vine Snare. They often spawn in clearings like these and _snare_ any unsuspecting travelers. We're lucky that these rocks are nearby." I looked down at my rock and frowned. There was nothing special about it. As far as I could see, it was a rock, plain and simple.

"Right. Now explain to me how this rock is so powerful."

At this my brother grinned, showing rows of perfectly white teeth. "We, my dear brother, are standing on a pile of schist."

"_Excuse_ me?" Back when I used to live in America, I had attended an all male Catholic elementary school. The brothers would have washed my mouth with soap if they'd heard me say that. What was Raiden _talking_ about?

"Schist. We're on a good old fashioned pile of schist." Raiden continued to smile and there was a crazy light in his eyes. He was having _way_ too much fun with this.

"Umm… suuuuree. So how's that gonna help us?"

He shrugged. "Well for one, we can't get attacked. Plants can't grow on schist. It just doesn't , those vines can't touch these rocks. Since we're also on them, they can't touch us." I didn't clearly see the logic in that, but I went along with it anyways. Raiden then raised his sword and pointed it towards the vines. "If we can get past the first row, then we can make it to its heart: the crack in the ground. Once we stab that, the monster will die."

I nodded in understanding. It didn't seem that hard. All I had to do was run past a bunch of killer vines and stab the ground. No biggie. I turned and signaled my understanding with a nod. "Well? What are we waiting for? We don't have all day you know."

A chuckle escaped Raiden's lips and he twirled his sword. "One more thing. What about our peeper?" Oh, I had almost forgotten about him. Whoever he was, he wasn't showing himself anytime soon. Therefore, I needed a plan, something absolutely brilliant and totally amazing.

My mind was blank.

Apparently Raiden had seen my predicament, what with my scrunched up face and all. He offered a solution. "Why don't we use our skills to find him? Then we can charge over and take him by surprise. Plus, we'll be running from the vines, too."

I shook my head. "Nah, that won't work. We need to take out the Snare and _then_ find our little spy. We need to lure him in, use some bait." I thought for a moment before continuing, "I know. I'll just _accidentally _drop a few potions. That'll be enough to reel him in."

Raiden nodded and grinned. "Not a bad idea. I like it."

I smiled. "Thanks. By the way, keep using English until we catch the dude. Until then, let's hope he's not American." I swiped my right hand and pulled up my inventory. Two red health potions materialized, and I discretely let them drop on to the rock behind me. Raiden saw the flash of red and readied his weapon. I spun my staff and looked over at him. _'It's show time,'_ I thought.

"Yahhhhhh!" I stepped forward and launched myself off the rock, screaming a war cry as I went. Green vines suddenly darted out towards me. I swung my staff and whacked them away. A long moan ripped through the air, and I saw chopped up plant parts flung high into the sky. Ah, that would be Raiden kicking butt and taking names. I'm so proud.

We continued to run through the evil vegetation, slicing and bashing up all sorts of wheat and whole grain products. By the time that we came within ten yards of the crack, I could've created a fruit salad with all of the plant body parts. A pair of vines suddenly leaped itself out of the ground and raced towards me. I charged up my staff and executed my newest skill, **Blunt Stingers**. I swung left, then right, then left again to smash the vines into chlorophyll paste. Another low moan echoed through the forest as my brother and I neared the heart of the Elite Vine Snare.

Raiden was the first to reach the target. He leaped forward and thrust his entire sword blade into the earth. The ground shook and all of the vines thrashed around wildly. An ear-piercing screech was released before the Snare exploded in a flash of brilliant white light. A small loot screen appeared at the spot where it died. I instantly ignored it and spun around to scan the clearing.

_'There!'_ I thought as I spied a flicker of movement near the two rocks of schist. "Come on!" I yelled sprinting after the unknown thief.

"Right behind you!" came Raiden's response. We both chased after the scurrying figure, watching black, messy neck-length hair streaming in the wind. _'Wait what? Neck-length black hair? Holy crap! She's a girl!'_ I was shocked at my internal revelation and I screamed back to Raiden in English, "Dude! She's a girl!"

"W-What?! The heck?" I heard his foot rate double and I assumed that he'd increased his speed. The little black-haired girl glanced back before running faster, dashing madly through the forest. I had gotten a glimpse of her face and saw that it was that of a fifteen year old. _This is _so_ weird,'_ I thought. _'What is she doing all alone in here? Better yet. Why'd she fall for the trap?' _We continued to chase after the girl and she soon realized that we weren't going to stop. She began to zig-zag through the trees, vanishing and then appearing again after a few seconds. I looked back at Raiden and flicked my head to the right. He nodded in understanding and began to veer off. I continued running and hoped that Raiden had been able to parallel the girl. This way, we could get her from both sides and block her escape. At least that was the plan anyways. We didn't expect the girl to continue running straight and burst into another clearing. We definitely didn't expect for her to charge through a crowd of monsters and head towards an open cave.

Like I said, things were moving _way_ too fast.

* * *

**Raiden Shin:**

Sho and I had just recently escaped the wrath of an Elite Vine Snare only to end up in a wild chase after some girl with long, black hair. Even worse, she seemed to be breaking away. There was no way I was going to let that happen. I quickly broke off from the chase and ran to the right of the girl, paralleling the girl's path. The path suddenly opened up into another clearing, and I caught sight of flowing black hair. Up ahead, a group of Wandering Treants meandered around. They had not been aggroed (attracted; it's a video game term) by anything and were just walking around. I didn't know if the girl was reckless or had a death wish, but she charged right through. The plant monsters spun their heads to target the girl and their eyes lit up in a red gleam.

_'Not good. Not good at all.' _I skidded to a stop and watched in horror as the girl dodged around the Treants and made her way over to a cave. She quickly vanished inside and the Treants began to follow her. Fortunately, the big giant plant things weren't that fast. If they were, she would have been in a bad position.

I then heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Sho standing there with a strange look in his eyes. I didn't know what he wanted to do, but I did know that we had to save the girl. "Sho, we've got to go in there and get her!"

My brother flicked his eyes over me and then back to the scene ahead. A few moments passed before he said, "No."

"Hold up. What?! You can't be serious!" The look on his face confirmed my suspicions. "No... you aren't kidding. Sho! We've got to help her!" The expression didn't change. "What are you _thinking_? We can't just _leave_ her there!" Sho looked me steadily in the eyes and that same cold face remained. _'No. This can't be happening! No... no no no! Damn it Sho! We've got to help her!'_ I looked at my brother and ground my teeth. Why does he have to _be_ this way? Can't he see that she's in trouble? She'll get herself killed and what were we gonna do? Just stand here? My mind flashed back to the first day when this game started. I could clearly remember the conversation.

_"So that's the plan," said my brother. "We keep ahead and grab all the quests, the resources and rewards. We level up, train and fight our way out of here. That's the least we can do. However," Sho stared me in the face to make sure that I'd gotten the message, "we always, always stay alive. You got it? No heroics. No search and rescues. Our top priority is survival. Got it? Our first priority is to survive, not to save others. So come on. We've got to move." He closed his map menu and started walking away. That's when I sighed._

_"Seriously Sho? That's it? Just you, me and survival right? Nobody else?"_

_"Can't afford it Raiden. Things are gonna get real dangerous real fast. We don't have time to protect other people, and we definitely don't have time for moral debates. Now, come on. Let's move."_

I became increasingly angry after I had recalled that fateful day.

_'Screw that,'_ I thought, gritting my teeth. _'Forget all of that. I don't _care_ what he says. I'm saving her. I don't care if I'm risking my life. I wouldn't feel right if I'd just left someone to die.'_ With that last thought, I looked over at my brother. He looked back at me and must've seen my intentions for he reached out to grab me. I dodged the swipe and ran forward, brandishing my sword.

"Damn it Raiden! Get back here!"

_'Ha, as if.'_ I neared the closest Treant and slashed my glowing green sword upwards, severing his arm. I followed up the blow with a horizontal plant monster roared in pain and brought back its remaining arm. I lifted my shield to block the blow.

"Switch!" yelled a sudden voice to my left. I grinned. _'What a good guy,'_ I thought with pride in my chest._ 'He came through.'_ I jumped back and my brother jumped in smashing his glowing staff right down the Treant's face. He then struck it left and right several times before it shattered.

I was instantly punched in the shoulder afterwards. I smiled ruefully at my brother while I rubbed the already forming bruise.

"That's for being an idiot and an absolute _fool_," he said. "Now come on. We've got a little thief to catch."

I smiled and thanked the heavens. My brother wasn't actually that bad. He was just a bit stubborn. Ok, maybe not a bit. He was very very _very_ stubborn.

We both ran forward to engage the other Treants. Unfortunately for us, things went wrong from that point on. For every monster that we killed, another respawned in its place. We slowly made our way over to the cave, killing everything that came within range.

My brother smashed another monster before yelling over to me. "This is no use! We've got to make a run for it!"

"Fine!" I responded after I had killed off my current foe. "Ready?"

"Yeah! Go!" We both turned and dashed towards the cave knocking aside any mobs that were in our way. We made it through and entered a dank area with small stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. It wasn't very deep and its furthest corner was occupied by two people.

The first one was our female thief. She had messy, black, neck-length hair with bangs in the front. Her face was that of a typical teenager, round, soft and smooth. I assumed she was fifteen or so, due to her relatively small build. Then again, who was I to judge? I was pretty much the Hulk compared to her.

Her eyes were dark green and her nose was rather pointed. She wore a hoodless, tan, woolen cloak over top a purple turtleneck piece of cloth armor. Various pockets decorated the outside of the turtleneck, and a looped strap ran diagonally from a little bit above her right hip down to her left one. Baggy grey-black pants and boots completed the bottom part of her attire. On her hands she wore black fingerless leather gloves. I saw the hilt of a dagger poking from behind her back and assumed that the strap was for the sheath of her blade. She was currently cradling the head of another girl on her lap. In her right hand, she held a red vial. I realized that it was the one that Sho had "dropped." She was trying to use it to heal the fallen girl who was at 42% health. Our thief friend had 81%.

As I looked closer at the girl on the ground, I was able to make out a few features. She was about Sho's age, seventeen or so. She looked rather frail and scrawny, but on closer inspection, I noticed that she had a decent amount of curves to her without being overly so. I reasoned that she was just a small and slender person. Her honey-blonde hair formed bangs in front of her face and reached down to her mid-back. She had a smooth face with well-groomed eyebrows and a thin line of red lipstick. Her eyes were closed and it looked as if she'd been hit in the head.

The incapacitated girl had on a long-sleeved white blouse (at least I think it was a blouse. I'm not very versed in women clothing) with a piece of leather armor over her chest along with a strap for her sword sheath. For her bottom, she had on a white skirt with red stripes running down the side. A pair of red and white leggings smudged with mud went up to her knees. Beside her lay a two-handed longsword with dust on the blade.

I took this all in using an analysis technique taught by my dad. I had a feeling that I knew what the situation consisted of, but didn't have time to dwell on it as my brother ran into the cave right behind me. He quickly glanced around and took in the scene with a practiced eye. He then looked at me and said, "Dude, we're surrounded."

"Of course we are," I said, sighing loudly. "Now what?"

He gestured towards the thief who was still holding the potion vial and looking at us with wide eyes. "We get them out of here. Or did you have another plan?"

"No. Not really." I shook my head and grinned at my brother. "Thought you said we weren't going to be heroes. What happened to that?"

Sho scowled and glared at me. "We will talk about _that_ later. Now we've got to save these two ladies." He walked over to the thief and held up his hands. "I'm not gonna hurt you," he said in Japanese. "I've come to help."

She stared at us then shook her head, sticking the vial into her pockets and drawing her dagger. Sho leaned back a bit. "Woah! Hold on. We won't hurt ya."

I heard scrapping noises and saw a couple of Treants making their ways into the cave. "Um, Sho? Could you hurry up here? We've got company." I hefted my blade and slipped into a defensive stance.

"I'm trying here. She won't let me help he- Woah there! Watch where you're swinging that thing!"

"Sho? _Anytime_ now." The Treants continued to advance slowly forwards.

"I'm_ trying_ here. She won't drop the dagger." I heard a bit of shuffling and a grunt before Raiden appeared by my side, holding the unconscious girl. "Alright bud. Lead the way. Let's get the hell out of here." He looked over at the thief and said, "Stick close to us. That's if you want to live of course." I then heard some choice curse words mixed with the words _'stupidity'_ and _'ignorance.'_ Ah, that was my brother alright. Always a gentleman.

I glanced back at our jumbled up group and couldn't stop a grin from breaking through. My brother saw that and frowned. "Are you going crazy or something? You look almost _happy_ that we're gonna die." I smiled even wider and turned around, twirling my sword once.

"Stay close behind me," I said as I ran forward slashing at the first monster in our path. I emitted a loud cry as I continued to slash, reducing him to pile of sawdust. I heard footsteps behind me and continued to run, shoving mobs out of the way with my shield even as more began to spawn. I felt adrenaline coursing through my vines and a let out an ecstatic yell.

"Oh great. Now he's gone insane," mumbled my brother as we ran out of the cave and back into the forest.

* * *

**Shoichi Shin:**

Raiden is officially a lunatic. I have the proof. He literally just ran out of a cave screaming and swinging his sword like a madman. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was a caveman, what with all that yelling.

After we had chased that black-haired thief into a monster infested clearing, my brilliant brother had the absolutely _amazing_ idea of running in to "rescue" her. What was he thinking? I'd told him before. We were to do zero amounts of heroics and absolutely zero rescue missions. Honestly, there was no reason for us to go in there. We were seriously risking our lives. But nooooooo, Raiden just had to play the knight and run in to bail that potion-stealing thief out of there.

If he wasn't my brother, I would have left him there.

Seeing as how I was bound with the numbskull, I just _had_ to chase after him. Of course things couldn't have gotten any better. Instead, we were in a Monster Spawn Area (MSA for short). These areas had much higher monster respawn rates and were great places to grind. Of course, they were also great places to get FLIPPING TRAPPED!

When I hustled my behind into that cave, I realized that I didn't have _one_ damsel in distress, but _two_. Oy. My day just got a whole lot better... NOT! We had to haul them _both_ out of there and one of them WAS'NT EVEN STANDING! I was the one that had to carry her out, but not after I was repeatedly threatened by the black-haired thief. Besides, I wasn't much of an offensive tank anyways. Raiden was better suited to bust our asses out of there. Hopefully that thief could fight too.

When I picked up the unconscious female, my first thought was how light she was. She was only about a hundred pounds or so. I guess it wasn't her fault though right? Genetics man, they can get ya.

As I lifted her up, her eyes flickered open and I stared into a pair of bright blue orbs slightly dulled from pain. I couldn't help but put a reassuring smile on my face. "Don't worry princess; we'll get you out of here." She smiled faintly before promptly falling unconscious again.

I mentally kicked myself in the face. What the hell was that? Princess? Don't worry? I just met the girl and I was already spilling heroic nonsense.

Note to self: don't pick up half-unconscious girl in a cave in the middle of the forest surrounded by Treants, a thief and a psychotic brother.

I then walked up to my brother to alert him of the new plan. He understood and began to lay waste to Mother Nature. Man, weeds wouldn't stand a chance against my brother's sword. He had literally gone crazy, slashing and hacking his way out of the cave. The thief and I followed closely behind the crazed swordsman and we broke free of the darkness. Monsters kept spawning as we ran right out of the clearing. I held the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl tightly to my chest as I ran, hoping that I didn't accidentally drop her. That would've been embarrassing.

We kept running and running until we made it back to the dirt path that snaked through the forest. Once there, we stopped to catch our breath.

I still hadn't let go of the girl.

Raiden looked over at me and grinned. "Woo weee! Wasn't that _fun_?"

I lifted a finger that wasn't occupied by carrying a dead weight (hehe, dead weight. Get it? What? Too soon?) and pointed it at him. "You, sir, are a freaking lunatic."

"I learned from the best," he said cheekily. I rolled my eyes. I then glanced over at the little thief and saw that she was eyeing us suspiciously. I rolled my eyes again.

"Oh _come on_! We just saved your lives. Can you at least stop looking at us so suspiciously? Sheesh. What an ungrateful lot." The girl's eyes widen and she turned red. She looked away before whispering, "Thank you."

Raiden's eyes softened and he said, "No problem. Anytime." He then threw a penetrating glare at me. I rolled my eyes. "Say, maybe we should take you back to town. Make sure you get back safely." The girl's eyes got wider as she heard this from Raiden and she got even redder. Hmm, she kinda looks like a tomato. Wonder if she'll turn purple. "What do you say huh?" continued my chivalrous brother. "Do we have a deal?" He reached his hand out and offered it to the girl. She stared at it for a few moments before lightly grabbing his hand and shaking it. Immediately after, she let go and looked away.

Raiden grinned. "It's a deal then. Come on. Let's go." He beckoned her forward and motioned for me to follow along. They headed down the dirt path towards the town and left me standing there, holding an unconscious girl.

I sighed. Being a hero was _definitely _not worth it.


	5. A Growing Party

**A/N: Alright guys, sorry for the long wait. Here is the revised chapter 5. It took much longer due to all these tests and essays I had to write. I'm sorry for anyone who was waiting. I think I can get chapter 6 out soon enough. Hopefully. xD**

**Anyway****, comment, review and all that. Hope you like the newly revised version.**

* * *

**A Growing Party**

**December 24, 2022 Floor 3 ****– The town inn**

**Kairi (Kana) Ono:**

Sunlight streamed through the air and hit the side of my face, warming it up. A couple of birds chirped off in the distance and something soft and fuzzy covered my body. The ground underneath me was somehow very comfortable with a hint of fluffy bounciness. I moved around for a moment with my hand. _'W-what?'_ I thought as my mind slowly woke up. _'This isn't the ground.'_ With each body part sluggishly coming online, I opened my eyes and stared down at a bunch of purple and white flowers. I blinked and realized that the flowers were a two-dimensional design on bedsheets.

Wait a minute. Bedsheets?

"Eeeeeep!" A squeak escaped my mouth as I pushed up into a sitting position. My honey-blonde hair dropped down from my head into a messy pile of golden curls. I pushed them out of my face and looked around. I saw that I was in some foreign room. At the far wall, a pair of windows let in the warmth of the morning sunlight. The door at the end of the room was closed and had a small peephole at the top. I looked down at the supposed "ground" and found that I was on a queen-sized bed with the same flowers on the blanket covering my body. A table sat about four yards away from the foot of the bed and was surrounded by two wooden chairs. On top of the table was a vase of yellow and blue flowers. Next to it was a folded up piece of paper.

I made to move off the bed but was assaulted by a powerful pain. I grabbed my head and fell back on my heels, whimpering as a dull pounding continued to ring in my consciousness. Something ruffled to my left and I looked over at another bed that was next to mine. I didn't know how I missed it in the first place. That didn't matter though for a mop of black hair poked out from under a pile of blankets. I heard a small yawn as two slender hands reached out. The arms then moved to uncover the rest of the body, and I saw little Yumi blinking with owlish eyes. She made a cute little noise as she stretched. She had on a white t-shirt and I assumed that she wore her usual black shorts. She always changed into that outfit when she went to sleep. I was used to seeing her in those clothes after our first encounter.

After stretching, Yumi looked around and noticed me staring. She smiled sweetly and got off her bed, walking softly over to mine. She sat down on the edge and quietly said, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright. Just tired." She must have seen through my bluff for she shook her head and gently probed my skull.

"You're not alright. You're head still hurts doesn't it?" Yep. She definitely saw through my lie.

Sighing, I replied, "Fine. My head hurts a little bit." I then quickly made to reassure her. "But it's not that bad! It feels better already. Anyways, where are we?" I looked around the room again, trying to decipher its location.

"We're back at the town."

_'Really?'_ I thought. _'How'd we get here?'_

Yumi saw my questioning look and filled me in. "We were rescued by a couple of guys. They got us out of that cave." Oooohhh. _That_ cave. I remember that cave. As I thought of that, my mind went back to the events of the past month and how Yumi and I ended up in_ that_ cave.

* * *

From the very beginning, Sword Art Online was just a game to me. It didn't hold any special meaning or have any purpose. It was a game, a tool for entertainment, and I had played it for just that reason. I needed a new way to occupy myself on the weekends. You see, my parents were both business people. They would go on long extended trips and leave me at home. Usually, I would got out with my friends. However, I recently got tired of going to the different clothing stores and gossiping about boys. To be honest, it got repetitive after a while. Luckily, my parents had finally managed to get a permanent job here in northern Japan. Before that, we were constantly on the move between America and Japan.

Oh, didn't I tell you?

I'm part American and part Japanese. My dad's from central Japan and my mom is from the North-East of America. They had met at a meeting down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The talk was about some sort of cancer research and how some company wanted to buy a facility. It didn't really make sense when I heard it, but I did know that my dad soon became attracted to my mom. He would constantly make up excuses to have her show him around the city. It was all really sweet. Long story short, she fell in love with him, they got married, had me and tried to settle down. Of course that didn't work, and we ended up moving all over the place.

Anyways, when Sword Art Online was announced, my dad had just come back from a business trip and had somehow gotten his hands on a copy. He gave it to me with a wink and said, "This is your own little trip, okay Kairi? With this game, you can go on your own adventure, have your own little journey. Now wouldn't that be neat?" At that time, I had rolled my eyes at my dad's antics and reluctantly accepted the game. I mean, what sane seventeen year old girl accepts a video game from her dad? Seriously? If my friends knew, I wouldn't be able to leave the house till I was thirty and needed a husband. That's how bad things would be.

Well, right after I got the game, I did some research on it and found that it was actually pretty cool. The NerveGear, which my mom later bought for me, was able to intercept brain waves and translate them into movement and actions within the game. The result was free range of motion in a virtual reality. It was probably the most advanced thing that was created that year. So when the SAO servers went online at one o'clock on November sixth, I couldn't wait to get started.

Unfortunately for me, things didn't go quite as planned. The first few hours of the game were quite fun and allowed me to experience all sorts of different things in a programmed world. I remember talking to dozens of players. I even grouped up with a couple and drank coffee with them. That was how good things were.

Then, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online, appeared and ruined our world. He had trapped us, locked us up in a virtual cage with no way out and an impossible task. Mass hysteria rampaged through the Town of Beginnings and suicides skyrocketed. What did I do?

I cried.

That's all I did for four days straight. I was terrified, so awfully terrified. I didn't know what to do. Here I was playing a game for fun, waiting for my parents to come home, and the next thing that happens locks me deep within a program, never to escape again. I continued to weep, drowning my self in tears. I was in such a bad shape that my eyes were constantly red, and my face was pale. After my four days of self-despair, I decided to drag myself out of my rented room and go downstairs for some food. The bread and soup rejuvenated my body and I had enough courage to step outside, thinking that the world had somehow changed during my time of seclusion.

I was wrong.

Nothing was different. The NPCs were still walking around, players were trading and dealing with merchants, and even the birds flew in the air. The world hadn't missed me one bit. I was about to break down and cry again when I saw a small girl with black hair run past me. She was being chased by two other guys who were twice her size. I felt a sudden urge of worry and followed the two males. They had cornered her in a back alleyway and were threatening her with all sorts of violence. Felling anger and sorrow for the girl, I stepped forwards.

"Hey, get your hands off of her! I-I mean it!"

The boys turned around and stared me down. I got a look at their faces and saw that they were barely fifteen, fourteen years old. One of them sneered at me and said, "Who are you? Get out of here. This is none of your business."

When he said that, a realization struck me. This _was_ none of my business. Why was I getting involved? Was there a need for my intervention? No, there was not. Still, I was done with all the crying and moaning. Deciding right there what I was going to do, I reached out and punched the first boy in the face. He staggered backwards, clutching his nose. His friend suddenly backed up raising his hands in fear.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We didn't mean any harm miss. Honest. We just wanted our stuff back."

I glared at them before shaking my fists in a classic fighting stance. They started moving away from me. Finally, the sprinted full tilt out of the alleyway and left me alone with the black haired girl.

This was when I met Yumi. Apparently, she had stolen some money and an apple off those two boys. They had chased her down to beat her up and gain their items back. I didn't think it was morally correct or even funny, but Yumi had started cracking up after the boys had left.

After that day, I resolved to becoming more active within the game. I partied up with Yumi and trained with her. We had gotten to about level twelve when the third floor boss had been beaten. That was about a week ago. Now, I was level thirteen. I wielded a generic «Two-Handed Steel Longsword». I also had a leather chest piece along with my blouse and skirt. I had tried getting a steel breastplate, but I didn't have enough money. My skills included «Two-Handed Straight Sword», «Parry», «Sprint», «Light Metal Equipment» and «Cooking». I currently needed the «Battle Healing» skill to back up my weak defense and low health. Unfortunately, things weren't going so well.

Yumi, on the other hand, had a completely different set of skills. Her playing style was very much thief-like and involved lots of stealth. She had «One-Handed Dagger», «Pickpocket», «Hiding», «Trap Dismantling», and «Loot and Chest Finding». Her abilities allowed us to find all sorts of hidden treasure. That's how we've gotten so far in the game. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be making any money at all. With her help, we were able to get decent gear and survive on our own.

From what I've noticed, Yumi was very quiet girl. She barely spoke and only did so when something bothered her. She would lean in close and whisper softly in your ear to convey her message. She was also very shy. The first couple weeks I was with her involved red faces, nervous glances away and little squeaks of surprise. Still, she was very loyal and good on her word. She was like the little fifteen year old sister I never had.

It was good to have a little sister.

With those last remaining thoughts, I arrived at the present and tried to recall the circumstances that had brought me here. A cave, monsters spawning and a guy carrying me to safety. Those were the last things I remembered before waking up in a bed back at town. Maybe the note on the table would provide some answers.

* * *

After I had come out from my thoughts, I looked up to see Yumi staring at me expectantly. She then flicked her eyes off to the nearby table. Nodding, I motioned for her to get it. When she came back with the piece of paper, I opened it and read:

"Dear Missus, we hope you are feeling well. That bruise you acquired on you head dealt a great toll to you. However, do not worry, for we made sure that you had gotten back to town safely. In the morning, we will come to check on your status. Until then, we hope you are well."

The handwriting was very neat and orderly, its characters written with absolute precision. Whoever had created this note must have been very educated.

At the bottom, scrawled hastily, a few other words were written. They said:

"Wake up. You owe me."

I read the note several more times before handing it back to Yumi. She quickly looked it over before placing it back on the table. Suddenly, we heard loud voices coming from outside our door. Yumi immediately got up and reached under her bed mattress. She pulled out her steel dagger and held it in a reverse grip, hiding it behind her back. I motioned for her to lay back down before dragging myself out of bed. I was attacked by a wave of nausea as I got up, but I ignored it. I crept over to the wooden door and peeped outside.

I saw two boys. One was dressed in a green t-shirt with black swishy pants (the workout kinds that make noise when you walk). The other boy one had a blue t-shirt and the same black swishy pants. As I leaned closer to the door, I made out their argument.

"Dude, we've got to wake them. They owe us big time."

"Oh come on bro, take it easy. They're probably still sleeping. You can't just barge in like that."

_'So these are the rescuers__,'_ I thought, straining my ears to hear more. _'I wonder what they want.'_

"And why not?" said green shirt. "They owe me and I'm here to collect. Who's gonna stop me from getting my dues?"

"Well, no one," said the one in blue. "Still, can't you wait till they wake? They need their rest."

Greenie shook his head. "Nope. I want my money _now_." He then reached towards the door when blueie stopped him.

"Wait, hold up a sec. Can't we talk about this?"

The older boy rolled his eyes. "Dude, what's there to talk about? I save them, they pay me. That's how it works."

My eyes got bigger at the mention of that. _'__'Are these really my saviors__?'_ I thought. _'They're kind of scary. At least the green one is.'_

The younger guy answered his older friend's response. "Yeah, we _saved_ them. That's a good deed. We don't collect on good deeds."

"Well then, what _do_ we collect one? How're we gonna make money?"

Blue-shirt sighed, "Seriously? Dude, we make money all the time from our drops. It's not a big deal."

"It is to me."

The older one then reached for the doorknob and yanked on it. With a surprise, I stepped back. I looked at Yumi and saw that she was mortified. She must have heard the conversation for her eyes were wide and fully dilated. These boys scared her. That was not good. I backed away from the door and motioned to the beds before climbing back in mine. I pulled my blanket up to my neck and whispered to Yumi, "Pretend to sleep. Maybe they'll go away."

She nodded before rolling over and "falling asleep." I did the same and waited for the guys to come inside.

* * *

**Shoichi (Sho) Shin**

God damn it. Stupid Raiden and his stupid ideas. Who told him to go save those two girls anyways? Nobody, that's who, and I'm not talking about Odysseus. Man, Raiden always has to go sticking his nose into things that don't concern him. You know what's worse? He won't even let me charge them. He's all like "Oh! It's a good deed you've done! You don't get money for good deeds!" Forget good deeds, I need _money_. I've got a staff I want to upgrade. There's no time for righteousness.

When I got the the girls' room, I was about to open it and rush in when that _idiot_ had to stop me. "They could be sleep," he said. "Don't wake them," he said. Heh, as if. I argued with him for a bit before giving up and trying the doorknob. _'Of course it's locked,'_ I thought. _'They couldn't just make it easy, now could they...'_

I looked left and right down the hall before pulling out a kitchen knife that I'd swiped the other day. I slipped it in the cracks between the door and the wall. I wiggled the blade around, trying to get it to slip between the little protruding thing bellow the knob and the doorframe. After a few seconds, I got it through and pushed the blade to the right as I twisted the doorknob. I pushed forwards and the door slowly opened up. Without looking to see if Raiden would follow me, I walked into the room with a kitchen knife in my hands.

The room was exactly like I'd remembered it from the night before. Windows to the right, two beds, a table with two chairs and a flower vase to the left and forwards, and finally, the peephole on the door.

Wait. Peephole?

I looked over at it and realized where I had gotten that strange feeling from my «Detection» skill. One of girls must have been spying on us. That means that they were awake, which means that they're faking their sleep. I looked over at the prone figures of the girls and grinned. I looked at Raiden and he looked at me questioningly. I began to speak in English.

"They're awake, you know that?"

"Really? How do you know?" He was a bit surprised by my conjecture. It's not his fault really, he didn't have the skill.

"The peephole," I said, still looking at him. Suddenly I saw him stiffen. "What's wrong?"

He quickly glanced towards the girl on the left bed and switched to Vietnamese. "She's awake alright, and she can speak English."

I stared at the girl for a moment before looking back at Raiden. "How do _you_ know?"

"She twitched when we started speaking. Guess she was surprised that we knew the language. I heard the sheets a ruffle a bit before stopping." Ah, that would make sense. Looks like these girls were more than I thought. Still, that didn't deter me from my current goal. I _need__ed _cash, and I was _going_ to _get_ cash.

I pulled up my inventory and materialized my staff. Grinning once at my brother, I swung the staff down once with a loud clang. I heard a small squeak from one of the beds and continued to swing my staff around, hitting it off the table, the floor, the ceiling and the bed frame.

_Clang! Clang! Clang!_ _Clang!_

I hoped at least one of the girls would reveal themselves. However, they appeared to have strong wills for none of them got up. Rolling my eyes, I started to yell in Japanese.

"Alright you maggots! Up and at them! Rise and shine sunflowers! We've got a big day ahead of us!"

As I yelled, I continued to swing my staff and wander around the room. I leaned in close to the girl on the left bed and screamed loudly.

"You've got a debt to pay! Up and at them soldier! AWAKE!"

The girl twitched visibly before sliding deeper under her blankets. I rolled my eyes again. This wasn't getting anywhere.

Then, I felt a little prickle on the back of my neck and whipped around, scanning the right bed. The girl hadn't moved, but for some odd reason, I felt that something had changed. I looked over at Raiden and raised my right eyebrow.

"The hell was that?"

He grinned widely. "Nothing. Nothing at all." He continued to smile that ridiculously good-looking smile before coughing a few times. I narrowed my eyes.

"Alright, spill, what happened? Does it involve this girl right here?"

Raiden's smile grew wider and he switched to Vietnamese before saying, "Roses are red, violets are blue. You speak English and I do too." He then stared at me with an angry look in his eyes. "You came in here to raise some Hell. Too bad the thief can steal so well."

I stood there with my jaw gaping open as I tried to comprehend his impromptu burst of poetic genius. I speak English and you do too? Raise some Hell? Both eyebrows came up as I understood the last part.

_Steal so well!_

I spun and threw off the bedsheets of the girl on the right. She had her back turned to me and both arms were in front of her. I quickly noticed the black hair before reaching around the front and grabbing her collar. She squealed as she was lifted upwards. I saw terror in her eyes and instantly felt a sharp pang of guilt. Ignoring it, I brought her against the wall and slammed her against it.

"Give. Me. My. Stuff. NOW!"

The girl whimpered. She was clutching two vials of health potions tightly in her hands. A steel dagger clattered to the ground and under the bed. I was about to slam her against the wall again when I felt a blade on my throat. I shifted my eyes backwards and saw Raiden's furious glare. He looked at me and scowled.

"_Sho_," he said grinding his teeth together, "Let. Her. Go."

To be utterly honest, I was considering ignoring my brother until I got a really good look at his eyes. He wasn't messing around like I was. He was dead serious, and by dead serious, I mean _absolutely_ dead serious. I released my hands, and the girl dropped unceremoniously on the ground. She had tears in her eyes. She quickly got up and scurried over to the older girl who had gotten up, hiding behind her. Sighing, I turned and lifted my hands up with palms facing outwards.

"My bad ya'll," I said in Japanese.

The two girls still looked completely horrified, and I couldn't blame them. I had just barged into their room, raised some Hell and proceeded to threaten a fifteen year old. Things were definitely against me right now. Even Raiden looked disgusted at me. I rolled my eyes and sighed before walking over to one of the two chairs and sitting on one. I pulled my feet up and put them on the table before regarding the girls with a critical eye.

The older one was at least sixteen, maybe seventeen. She had honey-blonde hair that reached down to about mid-back. Her eyes were blue, but they were dulled from the shock of the recent events. She was still in the same battle armor that I saw when I rescued her. The other girl, the thief, had a change of clothing. She had on white shirt with black pants. At the moment, she was crouched behind the older girl with only her eyes peeking over a shoulder. I then heard a scraping noise and Raiden pulled the other chair up next to mine. He looked at me once before rubbing his eyes and saying, "Um... sorry about that."

I rolled my eyes as the other girls looked at each other incredulously. The older girl then said in a twinkling tone, "Tha-That's alright."

I rolled my eyes again. _'Great,'_ I thought. _'We're_ _gonna get nowhere.'_

* * *

**Satomi (Yumi) Noa**

Today had started just like any other day. Kana was injured, I had stolen something, and all in all, things were looking pretty good. Of course that didn't last for long. Two guys had barged into our rooms and proceeded to cause a ruckus. One of them, the one that carried Kana the other day, had swung his staff around, hitting every surface that he could reach. I tried my best to pretend to sleep, but he was very loud.

And scary.

The guy had started yelling loudly as he tried to wake us up. It almost worked too. Then he had walked over to Kana's bed and turned his back on me. That's when I made my move. I reached out with a hand and tapped the air in front of his belt. A mini white screen popped up with the word 'Pickpocket' at the top. Two items were listed below that. It said 'Basic Health Potion x 2'. A small pair of parentheses was to the left of that and it read (85%). Further down, there was a button with the words 'Steal All' and the parentheses (85%) next to it. In short, this window allowed me to see al the items I could stea. The higher my skill level, the higher chances I had of stealing items and the better items that I would be able to take. For now, I could only steal basic potions and food. Hopefully later, I could steal money and even weapons.

Quickly, I pressed the 'Steal All' button and two potions appeared in my hand. I turned around and hugged them close to my chest as I suppressed the giggle that wanted to escape my lips. A few moments later, the other guy in the blue shirt started speaking. He said something in a strange language, his voice changing from playful to furious in a matter of seconds. That's when the older guy whipped around and dragged me up, slamming me into the wall. My breath escaped my body and my chest shuddered. I looked up into my attacker's eyes and saw that they had a mix of anger and amusement. The amusement didn't look very good. It was more of a sick joy.

I was about to struggle when a blade appeared by the guy's neck. He looked back, said something and released his hold on me. I fell for a second and hit the ground, banging my knees off the floor. I whimpered once before scurrying back to Kana and hiding behind her. The guy in green sighed and sat down on one of the chairs with his feet on the table. He stared at us for a minute before the other sat down beside him. The kinder one rubbed his face before apologizing. I heard Kana say something before redirecting my attention back to the two boys.

The older one was rather tall compared to me. I guessed he was around 175 to 178 centimeters. He had rather bulky arms and looked for all intents and purposes like a powerful swordsman. However, for some strange reason, he wielded a staff. The other guy was just as bulky and only a bit shorter. He had brown eyes and flat brown hair. The one major difference between the two boys were their eyes. The older guy's eyes were deep black. When he looked at me, I felt like a mouse under the gaze of a hawk. His eyes pierced through me as he scanned Kana and I. The facial features of the guy perfectly matched his silent expression. His lips were formed into a thin line and his eyebrows curved down. The sharp angles of his face further highlighted his displeased state. All in all, he looked like a very tall, very angry, kung fu fighter.

The younger one had much nicer features. He wore a soft smile that reflected his gentle behavior and highlighted his brown eyes. They were very brown, almost like mud. Instead of curving downwards, his eyebrows lay flat on his face in a relaxed position. The softer skin further showed the age difference between the two boys. I guessed this one was around my age and the older one around Kana's age. In the end, the two guys were almost the complete opposite of each other. One emanated annoyance while the other expressed concern.

I rather liked the younger one. He was much much nicer.

After several moments of silence, the guy in green spoke up and said, "Alright. First thing's first. What are your names?"

Kana leaned forwards and answered for both of us. "I'm Kana and she's Yumi."

The guys digested that for a moment before Kana spoke up again. "Wha-what are your names?"

I knew she was scared. Her voice said it all. The boys both looked at each other before the younger one answered, "I'm Raiden and that's Sho. Nice to meet you."

Sho narrowed his eyes at Raiden's comment before saying, "We're brothers. What about you two? Are you sisters?"

Kana glanced back at me and blushed. "No. We're just friends."

Sho narrowed his eyes some more, turning them into mere slits. "How long have you been on the front lines?"

Kana stared off for a second before saying, "About a week now. We've decided to try our hand in the forest after the third floor boss was killed. Why, is there a problem?" She stared questioningly at the two brothers. I saw Raiden quickly waving his hands in front of his face, trying to call her off. Unfortunately, Sho had heard and his eyes opened wide, fire dancing in the dark holes.

"Problem? Problem? Of course there was a God damn problem!" He suddenly stood up and started pacing around the room while waving his hands around. "You fricking went into the God damn Misty Forest without any form of backup. You, two girls, went _all_ by yourselves into a forest without any amount of geographic information. Am I right?" He screamed the last question straight at us. Kana recoiled and her back hit me in the chest. I slipped backwards and landed on the bed before latching on back to Kana. She had her head bowed down and eyes averted. The older brother then continued his verbal assault.

"Not only that, you had _her_ with you." He pointed a crooked finger at me. "Not only did you go by yourself, but you also _selfishly _brought _her_ along with you. Why? Why would you ever do that? I know you guys aren't sisters, but at least _consider_ her safety." He voice was now laced with sarcasm. Raiden tried to get up and stop his brother, but Sho turned around and glared at him. "Sit down Raiden. This doesn't concern you." Raiden tried to say something but Sho silenced him with a murderous look. He turned around again and went back to his scolding.

"Do you _know_ what kind of monsters are in those woods? Do ya?" He didn't let Kana respond. "Of course you don't, 'cause if you did, you wouldn't have gotten stuck in that cave. What the hell were you thinking anyways? Don't you know a Monster Spawn Area when you see one? That placed was literally crawling with creeps! How did you even end up in there?"

At this, Kana looked up. I couldn't see her face, but I was close enough to hear her heartbeat. It was running a hundred miles per hour. Raiden, though, had seen her face and his eyes were wide in alarm. "Hey Sho. Calm down for a sec will y-" he said only to be interrupted by the enraged older brother.

"No! No I will _not_ calm down for a sec! These girls, these absolute _fools_ wandered into the forest not knowing anything! They had no flippin' idea what they were getting into! Tell me, how the _hell_, did you end up in there?"

Sho gave Kana a few seconds to think before resuming his pacing. Kana then spoke up in a quite tone. "I-I thought we could handle them. I mean, it-it was only a few monsters, five at the most."

Apparently that was the wrong answer.

"Five! Five monsters huh?! That's what you thought? You looked at that field and the first thing you thought was FIVE?! Five! Five monsters! That's it huh? _Only _five monsters? That's all you saw? Huh?" The guy then stopped and switched to another language. I didn't know what he said, but it didn't sound good. Kana had slumped down and her head was still lowered. Raiden had a look of sympathy on his face as he watched his brother rant.

All in all, things weren't looking so good.

* * *

**Raiden (Raidz) Shin**

Well, so much for peaceful negotiations. What started off as a beautiful day ended up with Sho verbally thrashing two girls. As he rambled, I studied Kana's face. Each time he screamed or emphasized a word, she would flinch and her face would lower even further. I could see tears brimming on the edges of her eyes. I knew she was trying to stay strong for Yumi, but her composure was slowly degrading. Yumi, too, looked frightened at the events. Her dark green eyes followed my brother around as he paced in circles.

After a whole five minutes of verbal assault, I finally spoke up. "Sho. Stop!"

He whipped his head in my direction and the same look of anger remained. I rolled my eyes before saying, "Come on man. Give them a break. Dude, they didn't even have breakfast!"

My brother stopped at that. He mumbled something before turning towards the door and opening it. He flung a casual, "Fine." back to me before leaving the room. A lengthy silence coated the room after my crazed brother had left. I sighed before turning to the two girls.

"Sorry about that. Sho can get a bit worked up when he's worried about something."

Kana shook her head and said, "No, it's alright. He was right you know. I – wasn't thinking clearly. I could've gotten us both killed." She then looked at me and I could clearly see the tears in her eyes. "By the way, were you the ones who saved us?"

I nodded before giving a gentle smile. The girl needed some comfort after a scolding from Sho. She suddenly started bowing and bobbing her head really quickly. "Thank you! Thank you very much! Oh, arigatō!"

I chuckled a bit before saying, "Oy, don't thank me, I had nothing to do with it. In fact, it was Sho that carried you out."

She stared at me with wide eyes. "Are you serious? _He_ carried _me_ out?" She looked utterly shocked at that revelation. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. _'You owe me for this one bro. I__'__m covering your ass over here,__'_ I thought after I saw Kana's face. She looked behind her to confirm it with Yumi before staring ahead with a wide open mouth. _'I can__'__t believe it either Kana, but Sho really _did_ carry you out of there. You__'__ve got to trust me on this.__'_

"Then why did he just yell at me?" Kana wondered out loud. At this I grinned.

"That's a good question. Maybe he just likes yelling."

This surprised her even more for she placed her hand over her chest. _'Oh crap,__'_ I thought, _'I hope I didn't give her a heart attack. That won__'__t be good.__'_ She continued to stare at me before sputtering out, "Re-really?"

I laughed again. She looked really funny with her mouth open like that. She looked kind of like a fish, you know, one of those large-mouthed bass that flop around after you catch them. That's what she looked like. It was kinda funny.

Kana still seemed to be shocked at what I'd said. Apparently she couldn't get past the fact that it was_ Sho_ who had carried her out. Trust me, that's hard to believe. My brother is one piece of work. One moment he's out saving damsels and the next he's cussing them out in all _three_ languages. He would have also used French if it wasn't for his rather limited amount of knowledge with Parisian insults. At least he spared the girls _that_ little tirade.

Kana broke me from my thoughts when she piped up and said, "Weren't you guys talking about pay or something?"

I raised my right eyebrow in an exact imitation of my older brother. "So you _were_ awake weren't you?" I nodded towards the door. "You used that peephole, right?"

She nodded sheepishly and hid her face, saying quietly, "Yes."

I smiled before saying, "Ah, don't worry about it. My bro doesn't need money. Sure it would be nice if he got to upgrade his staff, but we can do that later."

Kana then looked up at me, her eyes glowing with determination. "If he needs money, I can give it to him! It was my fault he had to save me! I'll just pay him back."

I shrugged. "Sure. If that's what you want. But just so you know, he didn't mean _any_ of it okay? None of it. He was just worried. That's what he does when he's worried."

Kana nodded again and I hoped she understood. There was no way she would figure out my brother in just a single conversation. Heck, _I_ still couldn't figure him out. That's the thing about Sho. Kuzon and I always said that his mind worked on a completely different level then everyone else's. He would jump from one thought to another, from one emotion to the next. That's how he defended himself. You can't hit something you don't understand. Of course nobody understood Sho and only those living with him came even _close_ to understanding his mind. His heart's in the right place. It's just his mind won't let it catch up.

Hell, if I could find one person who could decode my brother, he or she would be my hero.

I was broken out of my thoughts when my brother reentered the room, carrying a tray heaped with food. I counted four glasses of orange juice and four plates filled with a total of four eggs, eight bacon strips and sixteen sausages. Finally he had _four_ forks in his hands and a bottle of ketchup sticking out of his front pocket.

Yep, that's my brother alright.

I winked at Kana and saw her blush. Hopefully she got the message. Like I said, Sho's not that bad. He's just too cautious sometimes.

Setting down the plate, he said, "Alright ladies. Eat up. We've got things to do."

My grin grew wider as he said that and even Yumi let out a squeak of surprise. I passed out the plates along with the forks and we began to eat. The food wasn't actually half that bad. I wonder how much he'd spent on it. _'Ah, that doesn__'__t matter,__'_ I thought. _'As long as I__'__m full, I__'__m fine with it.__'_

We ate in silence, munching on the food and drinking the delicious orange juice.

* * *

**Shoichi (Sho) Shin**

After eating, I placed down my glass of orange juice (which, by the way, is the greatest kind of juice ever created) and started to explain my plan for the day.

"Alright, first things first. What was the reason you were in the forest? Was it for a quest?" I directed my questions at the older girl, Kana, and waited for her answer. I must have surprised her or something because her face had gotten all red and she looked away shyly. I cocked my head to the right and said, "Cat got your tongue?"

She quickly shook her head and responded with, "Well, yes. It was a quest called «Diseased Leaves». I needed leaves from those treants."

I nodded in understanding. "Hmm. Yes. I've done that quest before. Alright then, here's the deal. I help you with this one quest. Then, you promise to never go into that forest without proper support. Understand?" I stared both of the girls in the eyes, trying to make my message clear. They both nodded and I grunted satisfactorily.

"Alright then, be ready in five."

I stood up and began to walk out of the room. I heard my brother cough and I rolled my eyes. _'Damn it. Almost got away with it too,__'_ I thought as I turned around, plastering an innocent look on my face. Raiden gestured to the plates and I groaned. I gathered them up and went downstairs, disposing them in the virtual trash can.

I went back to my room and got my stuff. I didn't have much, just an extra dagger, a ration pack and a few vials of potions that weren't in my inventory. I suddenly remembered Yumi's thief abilities. They were pretty handy. Maybe I could get her to tell me where to get it. That would be cool.

In five minutes, the entire group had congregated in the lobby of the inn with their battle gear. I looked over the equipment and frowned. It wasn't that bad, quite average actually. Still, I expected a little bit better for two supposed front-liners. Oh well, beggars couldn't be choosers now could they? I lead the team to the edge of the Misty Forest before stopping. I swiped my hand down and sent a party request to the two girls. Raiden was already in the party so he didn't need a request. I saw their names appear at the top left margin of my vision and confirmed that it matched the ones they gave us. It never hurt to be careful. Who knows, these girls cold be PKers. I had to keep my guard up no matter what.

Yumi then mumbled something that I barely caught. I turned around and kept walking backwards as I asked, "What'd you say thief?" I didn't mean for it to be condescending, but it must have come out that way for she looked away. I sighed again. Man, I have no idea how to talk to girls now do I? Jesus. No wonder I was single. Kana then turned to me and relayed the message, "She wanted to know why Raiden's name didn't match with the one in the party." I laughed at that and turned to my brother. He rolled his eyes and explained.

"Well, you see, I thought that Raidz, with a 'z' would be a cool name. However, Sho has sworn that he would never call me that. So thus, I am now and forever Raiden due to the fact that Sho does not believe in the name Raidz and its totally cool letter 'z' at the end."

I smirked before saying in English, "Bottom line? It's gay."

Kana gasped and I laughed out loud. I kept walking backwards until I bumped into something solid. I reached my hand back and felt rough bark. _'Woops. Guess like we made it,__'_ I thought as I took my foot facing away from the monster and kicked it in the chest. The move pushed it back a few steps before the treant roared. A couple of other hidden monsters rose out from the ground. They all roared again, sending birds flying out from the brush. I saw Raiden prepare his shield and sword. Yumi pulled out her knife and put it in a typical reverse grip. Kana had her two-handed long sword out and held in front of her body. With a yell, I charged up my weapon before lunging at the nearby monster. It raised its arm to block the strike, but my staff shattered the limb. I followed up with spear-like thrusts to the head. Finally, I activated **Diagonal** **Smash** and broke the monster's skull. It exploded in an array of colors.

When I looked back, I saw Raiden taking on two monsters at once. He sliced off first the arms before jabbing his sword in the monster's back. He then stepped up on the creature's limbs and rose upwards cleaving it in half. He spun in midair before diving straight down on the second monster's face and jabbing it right in the eye. He kicked it off his sword before spinning away. When he saw me watching, he smirked as if to say 'Match that.' I grinned before checking on the two girls.

Yumi was wielding her dagger with some frightening amount of experience. She struck out and slashed at a monster before tossing her knife to the other hand and slashing again. The monster roared and swung its long limbs. She ducked underneath the move and drove her steel dagger deep into the creature's armpits. She climbed up on it and proceeded to carve its limbs off. _'Oh. Wow,__'_ I thought a bit scared. _'Jesus. That girl carves wood like a butcher carves meat. Note to self: never give a little thief a knife.__'_ After a few moments, the creature exploded and died. Suddenly, another one rose out from the ground and struck Yumi in the back, decreasing her health to 72%. I quickly rushed forward and activated **Javelin** **Toss**. My staff glowed bright blue and I launched it straight between the monster's eyes. It shattered on impact.

I ran over and helped up Yumi. She groaned as she got up and her eyes flickered a few times. "Hey, are you okay? Come on, speak to me!" I asked worriedly. She nodded once before slowly getting up. She tried to step but collapsed on the ground. I caught her as she fell. She blinked upped at me before turning red. I rolled my eyes and reached behind me for my potions on my belt. I gave it to her and stood up.

"Stay down alright? We'll clear this place. Then you can return to the fight."

She nodded weakly as she gripped the vial of red liquid. I got up in time to see Kana sparing two «Venus Hu-Traps». They were giant Venus fly traps with an unusual taste for human flesh. Multiple vines shot out at Kana's legs and she slashed her sword at them. Several more struck out for her throat and she ducked, spinning her weapon in a circle. Unfortunately, she was too slow for the follow up and a vine wrapped around her stomach. Several more joined it, pulling her upwards. She screamed out loud.

"Help! Don't just stand there! Help!"

I rolled my eyes before charging up another **Javelin** **Toss** and throwing it at the first plant. The thing swallowed my staff. Several seconds later, it exploded, dropping my weapon on the ground. Ignoring it, I ran forward. A group of vines shot towards me and I spun around them. The plants then whipped around and came back. I turned my hands flat and created a pair of knives before chopping up the plants like a true karate master. I heard the whistling of another vine and I turned, axe kicking it into paste. Sprinting forward, I activated **Embracer**, a move that allowed me to pierce straight through the last Venus Hu-trap. It exploded and Kana fell to the ground, still screaming.

I didn't catch her.

When she got up, she glared at me before harrumphing. She stomped back to Yumi and helped her up. With a nonchalant reply, she said, "Well? Come on we've got places to be." The two girls then slowly made their way past us as they headed deeper into the forest.

My brother walked over to me and rolled his eyes. "Well, you screwed _that_ up didn't ya?"

"Screwed up?" I said with grin. "Brother, I owned that plant."

With a laugh, I walked after the two girls.

* * *

**Kairi (Kana) Ono**

That Sho is so _annoying_. I can't believe him. Here I was fighting a couple of monsters when I accidentally get wrapped up in forest green vines. Instead of helping me like a true gentleman, he goes and shows off, launching his staff around and punching the plants with his fists. Not only that, he didn't catch me as I fell onto the cold hard ground.

Pfft. What an arrogant jerk.

After that little embarrassing scene, Sho decided to take point, saying something about the "inability of idiotic novices." He then proceeded to curse in three different languages, first in Japanese, then in English and finally in some foreign tongue. He had a very foul mouth, using words from all letters of the alphabet. Apparently that was a usual occurrence. The younger brother, Raiden, just walked away with a roll of his eyes. After his bout of dirty words, Sho had burst out laughing. I didn't know what was so funny, but supposedly, it was a hilarious matter. When he finally calmed down, Sho led our group along a worn dirt path that wove through the Misty Forest. Every single time a monster popped up from the ground or spawned nearby, Sho would sprint at them and swing horizontally. His staff would smash the treant's side and then quickly come back to hit the opposite end. He single handedly took down every single creature that got in his way.

I've got to say, I'm impressed.

No matter how rude, or how cold he may seem, I couldn't deny that he was good, very very good. Every move was strong, precise, and fast. After about ten minutes, Sho had sheathed his staff and gone toe-to-toe with the nature monsters with just his fists.

Now I was very very impressed.

He fought with all parts of his body. He punched, kicked, elbowed, kneed, headbutted and even decked a couple of times. He was literally unstoppable. He didn't even get hit either. He spun and dodged around each and every move that was thrown at him, evading with great skill. By the time we reached a wide clearing, his health had only dropped by 1%. I'm pretty sure that was the time when he purposely threw himself on the ground to perform a sweep. This move had resulted in scraped hands and a slightly bruised foot. Other than that though, Sho did not allow any clean hits to land on him.

The field we ended up in looked rather peaceful. There were birds flying around and small little flowers peeking out among the grass. For some reason, both boys started to walk around and tap the ground with sword and staff.

"Alright guys. Maybe we should take a break," said Raiden as he prodded the earth. Sho nodded slightly as he made his way around. He had an intense look of concentration on his face. I didn't know why the boys were acting strangely this way. I mean, how many times do you see two men trotting in circles and staring at the ground. Not very many I hope. They reminded me of the weird Forensics Speech kids back at my school. Those people would always do the strangest of things.

I decided to voice my opinion on the matter. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Testing," responded both boys in unison.

_'Testing?' _I thought, _'What's that supposed to mean?'_

Shaking my head, I waited patiently for the two boys to finish whatever they were doing. Seeing a nice rock on the ground, I sat down and motioned for Yumi to come over. I then nodded in the direction of the two males.

"Well? What do you think?" I asked. Maybe she saw something I didn't. Besides, I needed some girl talk at the moment.

Yumi looked down for a bit before answering. "Nice. Nice people."

I looked at her incredulously. "Wait, even that Sho? He's nice too?"

She nodded again. "Even him," she whispered softly.

A bit confused, I questioned her. "Why?"

She thought for another second before giving her answer. "Protective. He protects Raiden. Doesn't care about anything else. Very protective."

I had to agree with her reasoning. So far, Raiden seemed to be the only one who could calm Sho down. A few words were all it took for the older brother to nod and walk away. He didn't seem like he was worried with what else occurred. Long as Raiden was alive, Sho was fine. I had yet to see some break in the guy's character. It would definitely be interesting to see who else could get close to him. As we talked, I realized that the two boys were off to one side, staring at us expectantly. Sho looked annoyed and Raiden looked amused. I knew they must've been gossiping for they would smirk and look our way. Growing red, I hastily stood up and brushed away the wrinkles on my skirt.

"We-well then. Le-let's go. What are we waiting for?" I stuttered out as I walked up to them.

Sho rolled his eyes as he spoke back, "We're eating lunch. We'll keep going in a bit. How many leaves did you get?"

With a bit of shock, I remembered the reason for our little trek in the woods. I opened up my inventory and searched for the quest item. I found that I had twenty-nine out of thirty leaves. Revealing that information to the brothers, I saw Sho nod before opening up his trade menu. He sent a request to me and I accepted it. He placed in a single leaf and accepted. I pressed the blue circle button and completed the trade. A small ding was heard and a small exclamation point appeared at the lower right of my vision. This signified the success of the quest. As I looked up, I realized that Yumi had also completed the quest thanks to the extra leaves given by Sho. Smirking a bit, he sat down and pulled up his inventory before proceeding to eat a sandwich. Raiden followed suit and sat down next to his brother. The two ate and pretty much ignored Yumi and I. I grew a bit annoyed and decided to strike up a conversation. Sitting down in from of the two, I questioned them.

"So what are gonna do now?"

Sho stared at me bleakly before returning to his sandwich. I stared back at him with the same look. He smirked before drinking a bottle of, what I assumed to be, orange juice. After taking a swig, Sho's eyes glanced at my wrapped up sandwich. He looked at it for a second before saying, "Whatcha eating?"

"A sandwich with bird meat, some sort of lettuce, tomato slices and a bit of special sauce."

"Um, where did you get that?" said Sho in a slow voice. He was still staring at my sandwich. A hungry gleam started to appear in his eyes as he remained entranced by my lunch.

"Oh, I cooked it up myself."

A lengthy silence followed while I unwrapped the foil and bit into the food. A mixture of flavors assaulted my senses. I tasted the chewy meat, the crunchy lettuce and the sweet taste of the tomatoes. The semi-sweet and sour sauce became prevalent after my second bite. When I looked up, I saw that Sho was still staring at me.

"Wha-what is it?" I stuttered out, a bit surprised by his intense gaze. He shrugged once before looking back at his plain sandwich. He sighed before looking at me with semi-pleading eyes.

"Do you, maybe, possibly, probably, have another one of those delectable sandwiches?" he asked in a rather small voice. My mouth dropped open and I stared back at him. The roles were now reversed. Realizing this, Sho reacted quickly and the pleading look disappeared. It was replaced by a smirk. My face split wide as I grinned back at him. _'So that's your weakness huh?'_ I thought, _'You've got a stomach for good food.'_ Deciding to tease him a bit, I shook my head.

"No, sorry. I don't have any more."

I saw Sho's eyes lower down a bit and had to cover my mouth. I couldn't help it, he looked so sad right now. His head was drooping down and he was protruding his lower lip in the cutest manner.

Wait, what?!

Did I just call him cute?!

No way! That's not true!

I take it back, I take it back!

Well... now that I think about it... he _is_ kinda cute...

Stop brain, stop!

He's not cute at all! You just met him!

Stop thinking like that!

After a few minutes of internal warfare, my mind finally was able to function again. Taking a deep breath, I pulled up my inventory and materialized another sandwich. I tossed it at Sho before hunching over and eating my lunch. My hair hung down and covered my eyes.

Sho gasped as the food landed in his lap. He mumbled a few things about "dirty lying girls" before audibly chomping on my sandwich. A lengthy silence followed and I mustered up enough strength to peek out from under my blonde covering. What greeted me was a strange sight. Sho had the weirdest face. It was a mix between shock, disbelief, happiness and pure joy. Raiden was rolling on the side and clutching his stomach. His face was filled with mirth and tears rimmed his eyes. I saw that Yumi too was laughing. She had her tiny hands over her mouth and her shoulders shook visibly. I couldn't help but smile at the scene. A second later, Sho began to speak in a favorable tone.

"What the bloody blazes did you put in this thing? It's flipping brilliant!" praised Sho as he took another bite. He continued munching and soon enough, the sandwich disappeared. With a dramatic sigh, Sho got up and stretched. He started to walk away without a look back.

I felt anger boil up in my stomach. _'_

_He didn't even thank me!'_ I screamed in my mind. _'I give him a sandwich and get no thanks in return! What is wrong with him?' _I felt like pulling out my hair at the guy's annoying behavior. A gentler voice broke through my thoughts as I struggled to keep myself calm.

"Ah, ignore him. He doesn't know a good thing when he sees it," said Raiden. I nodded and sighed heavily. My face must've shown my emotions for the younger brother tried to apologize again.

"Look, he doesn't mean it like that. He just doesn't know how to thank you. He's not so good with words."

I nodded again and stood up. Readjusting my weapon, I walked to the opposite end of the clearing to calm my feelings.

I sighed again as my heart rate slowed down. I didn't know what to think of the two brothers. They were such polar opposites of one another. One cared and another didn't. One was gentle and the other harsh. One socialized and the other stayed silent. One intervened while the other watched. One smiled while the other scowled.

How could they even _live_ with each other? How did Raiden deal with Sho day and night?

Sighing again, I looked off into the distance and a single thought crossed my mind.

_'Great. Now I have _another _thing to deal with.'_

* * *

**Shoichi (Sho) Shin**

Okay okay. I done fricked up. Don't you flipping yell at me. Jeez. It wasn't _my_ fault. She was the one that threw the sandwich at me. What? It _was _my fault? Are you serious? Oh come on! I didn't do _anything_! Stop looking at me like that. Stop it! Go away! Go away!

Alright, in all honesty, it was definitely my fault. I was a jerk. There, I said it. I'm a big fat jerk. There, sue me.

Gah, I'm such a jerk.

Maybe I _should_ apologize.

Naaaaaaaahhhhh.

Okay, wait, should I? Like, a real apology? With the words and stuff?

I mean, I guess it would work. Alright, here goes.

I walked over to the silent Kana and stood there thinking about how to approach this situation. Normally, I would just dodge and ignore the crime scene. Now, I was forced to head straight into it. This was definitely out of my element.

Rolling my eyes, I picked the direct route. "Sorry for that," I mumbled out. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't hear. I was rather quiet.

I saw a slight movement as Kana turned around. She smiled gently at me. "It's alright. I'm sorry I caused you and your brother trouble. After this, Yumi and I will get out of your hair."

My one eyebrow raised up as I registered her words. I looked away and a silent sigh slipped out. The deed was done again. Scratch that up on my list of screw ups. Another person was shoved away by my cold attitude.

Great, just great.

I decided to make things lighter by joking around. "Hey, you never know. I might accidentally run into your hair again."

Kana giggled, her bright laughter music to my ears. I gave her one of my rare genuine smiles. Her face turned red and she looked away. I reveled in her awkwardness and couldn't help put in a last jab.

"Ain't that right, _princess_?"

This time, she let out a squeak before completely turning away. I laughed out loud at her expression. Giving her a friendly pat on the back, I walked back to Raiden and Yumi. With one hand, I motioned them forwards. "Come on. Let's keep going. I know we finished the quests but let's keep exploring. Maybe we'll get something good."

Of course nothing was ever easy. Little did I know, we would get more than we bargained for.


End file.
